ctim, quickly quelled by the sight of the
cold steel, and thrilled with the memory of that shot whistling by her
into the road a few hours before.

"Get out!" said Leslie coolly as the front door was flung open and
Julia Cloud peered through the brightness of the porch light into the
darkness.

"Get out!" Leslie held the cold steel nearer to Myrtle's face, and the
girl shuddered, and got out.

"Now go into the house!" she ordered; and shuddering, shivering, with
a frightened glance behind her and a fearful glance ahead, she walked
straight into the wondering, shocked presence of Julia Cloud, who
threw the door open wide and stepped aside to let them in. Leslie,
with the revolver still raised, and pointed toward the other girl,
came close behind Myrtle, who sidled hastily around to get behind Miss
Cloud.

"Why, Leslie! What is the matter?" gasped Julia Cloud.

"Tell her!" ordered Leslie, the revolver still pointed straight at
Myrtle.

"What shall I tell?" gasped the other girl, turning a white, miserable
face toward Miss Cloud as if to appeal to her leniency. But there was
a severity in Julia Cloud's face now after her long hours of anxiety
that boded no good for the cause of all her alarm.

"Tell her the whole story!" ordered the fierce young voice of Leslie.

"Why, we went out to take a ride," began Myrtle, looking up with her
old braggadocio. There had seldom been a time when Myrtle had not
been able to get out of a situation by use of her wily tongue.

"Tell it all," said Leslie, looking across the barrel of her weapon.
"Tell who wanted to go on that ride."

"Why, yes, I asked Leslie to take me. I--we--well, that is--I wanted
to meet a friend."

"Tell it straight!" ordered Leslie.

"Why, of course I didn't tell Leslie I expected to meet them--him. I
wasn't just sure he could make the arrangements. I meant to tell her
when we got out. And when we met him--and my cousin--it was my cousin
I was to meet--you see I'm--we--he----"

Myrtle was getting all tangled up with her glib tongue under the clear
gaze of Julia Cloud's truth-compelling eyes. She looked up and down,
and twisted the fringe on her sash, and turned red and white by turns,
and seemed for the first time a very young, very silly child. But
Leslie had suffered, and just now Leslie had no mercy. This girl had
been a kind of idol to whom she had sacrificed much, and now that her
idol had fallen she wanted to make the idol pay. Or no, was that it