sked.

"Out in the dining-room. You see, Mike Halsey is no kind o' use. He
vamoosed and left Ross down there alone, with his two prisoners and the
lights likely to be turned out on him. So I offered the caffy as a
calaboose. They are sure in for a long and tedious night."

Lee was alarmed at her mother's appearance. "You must go to bed. You look
ghastly."

"I reckon I'd better lie down for a little while, but I can't sleep. Ross
may need me. There isn't a man to help him but me, and that loafer Ballard
is full of gall. He's got it in for Ross, and will make trouble if he
can."

"What can we do?"

"Shoot!" replied Lize, with dry brevity. "I wouldn't mind a chance to plug
some of the sweet citizens of this town. I owe them one or two."

With this sentence in her ears, Lee Virginia went to her bed, but not to
slumber. Her utter inability either to control her mother's action or to
influence that of the mob added to her uneasiness.

The singing, shouting, trampling of the crowd went on, and once a group of
men halted just outside her window, and she heard Neill Ballard noisily,
drunkenly arguing as to the most effective method of taking the prisoners.
His utterances, so profane and foul, came to her like echoes from out an
inferno. The voices were all at the moment like the hissing of serpents,
the snarling of tigers. How dared creatures of this vile type use words of
contempt against Ross Cavanagh?

"Come on, boys!" urged Ballard, his voice filled with reckless
determination. "Let's run him."

As they passed, the girl sprang up and went to her mother's room to warn
her of the threatened attack.

Lize was already awake and calmly loading a second revolver by the light
of the electric bulb.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked, her blood chilling at sight of the
weapon.

"Hell's to pay out there, and I'm going to help pay it." A jarring blow
was heard. "Hear that! They're breaking in--" She started to leave the
room.

Lee stopped her. "Where are you going?"

"To help Ross. Here!" She thrust the handle of a smaller weapon into Lee's
hand. "Ed Wetherford's girl ought to be able to take care of herself. Come
on!"

With a most unheroic horror benumbing her limbs, Lee followed her mother
through the hall. The sound of shouts and the trampling of feet could be
heard, and she came out into the restaurant just in time to photograph
upon her brain a scene whose significance was at once apparent. On a chair
betwe