everal men beneath a window, which
they had forced open. One man was being helped through.

"Can't be a band of assassins, I allow? More likely a lot of burglars
trying to crack the crib."

The Westerner was right in his guess. These were not friends of Bill
Gaston bent on assassination, but housebreakers, whose cupidity had been
aroused by the fact, which had chanced to come to their knowledge, that
a diamond brooch worth ten thousand dollars had recently been taken from
the Lee residence. A crib which held such valuables seemed to them a
good one to rip open, and they had obtained information that Fairfax Lee
was expected to be away from home that night. They had found that most
of the servants were out, too, and because of this it appeared safer to
make the raid at an early hour, before the servants returned.

Badger stood in indecision in the shadows, wondering what course he
ought to pursue. Before he could make up his mind, the first burglar had
disappeared, and a second was being helped through the window. Two of
the burglars--there were four or five of them, as Badger could see--were
to wait outside, while their pals on the inside made their search for
valuables.

Suddenly there came a cry for help from within the house, followed by
the sounds of a struggle. Fairfax Lee, unable to sleep and wandering as
restlessly about within the house as the Westerner had upon the outside,
had come unexpectedly upon the first burglar at the upper landing of the
rear stairway. The burglar looked so marvelously like the crazy
office-hunter, Bill Gaston, that Lee believed him to be Gaston, and that
Gaston had invaded the house for purposes of assassination.

Though Lee had dreaded a meeting with Gaston, and would have gone far
out of his way to avoid anything of the kind, he was by no means a
coward. He expected a shot from Gaston's pistol, and to prevent this, he
hurled himself on the burglar with a suddenness and boldness that took
the latter by surprise.

The cry for help did not come from the lips of Fairfax Lee, but from
those of the burglar. Badger, however, fancied that the call had come
from Lee. Without waiting to consider the danger, or to ask himself how
he was to account for his presence in the grounds and in the house, Buck
Badger ran toward the open window.

As he did so, he saw two of the other burglars leap through. They were
going to the assistance of their pal. Then a shot sounded.

Badger crossed the i