now, you've done your duty," added Lee Virginia,
with intent to comfort him.

Lize, now that the stress of the battle was over, fell a-tremble. "I
reckon I'll have to go to bed," she admitted. "I'm all in. This night
service is wearing."

Ross was alarmed at the sudden droop of her head. "Lean on me," he said,
"it's my turn to be useful."

She apologized. "I can't stand what I could once," she confessed, as he
aided her into the hotel part of the building. "It's my nerve--seem's like
it's all gone. I go to pieces like a sick girl."

She did, indeed, resemble the wreck of a woman as she lay out upon her
bed, her hands twitching, her eyes closed, and Ross was profoundly
alarmed. "You need the doctor," he urged. "Let me bring him."

"No," she said, huskily, but with decision, "I'm only tired--I'll be all
right soon. Send the people away; tell 'em to go to bed."

For half an hour Cavanagh remained in the room waiting to see if the
doctor's services would be required, but at the end of that time, as she
had apparently fallen asleep, he rose and tiptoed out into the hall.

Lee followed, and they faced each other in such intimacy as the
shipwrecked feel after the rescue. The house was still astir with the feet
of those to whom the noises of the night had been a terror or a lure, and
their presence, so far from being a comfort, a protection, filled the
girl's heart with fear and disgust. The ranger explained the outcome of
the turmoil, and sent the excited folk to their beds with the assurance
that all was quiet and that their landlady was asleep.

When they were quite alone Lee said: "You must not go out into the streets
to-night."

"There's no danger. These hoodlums would not dare to attack me."

"Nevertheless, you shall not go!" she declared. "Wait a moment," she
commanded, and reentered her mother's room.

As he stood there at Lize Wetherford's door, and his mind went back over
her brave deed, which had gone far to atone for her vulgarity, his respect
for her deepened. Her resolute insistence upon law showed a complete
change of front. "There is more good in her than I thought," he admitted,
and it gave him pleasure, for it made Lee Virginia's character just that
much more dependable. He thrilled with a new and wistful tenderness as the
girl opened the door and stepped out, close beside him.

"Her breathing is quieter," she whispered. "I think she's going to sleep.
It's been a terrible night! You must be horri