eluctance, especially as he no
doubt hoped that Tony and I would after all come together. With Di and
me both safely disposed of to rich husbands, he would be free to marry
Kitty Main, or do anything he pleased. With this thought in my mind, the
situation looked rather desperate, and that night--Thursday night--I was
lying awake to wonder what I could do, when suddenly the night silence
which falls on lively El Paso after twelve was broken with the noise of
a tremendous explosion.

The huge bulk of the hotel quivered, as if struck with a Titan's hammer,
and it must have been the same with every other building in town. I
jumped out of bed mechanically, not knowing what I did. Only my body
acted. For an instant my brain was dazed--connection cut off. The first
thing I really knew, I found myself standing at the open window clinging
to the curtains. "What is it? What is it?" I was stammering out aloud.
And before I could get any answer from within, again came the same
appalling sound. With that, as if a second shock could restore the
senses stolen by the one preceding, I guessed that what I had heard must
be gunfiring on the hill.

"The raid has come, then, after all!" I thought, with awe rather than
fear; and thousands of other people must have been thinking the same
thought at the same moment.

It was a clear, starry night, the sky glittering like a blue, spangled
robe that scintillates with the motion of a dancer, and the electric
lamps of the city below lighting the streets as brightly as if the moon
were up. When I first reached the high window and stared down from it, I
had the impression that those streets were empty, but immediately after
the second shot and its reverberating echo, dark figures began swarming
out. Heads appeared in every visible window of the hotel. Electricity
was switched on in darkened rooms, and women showed themselves in their
nightgowns, with hair streaming over their shoulders, or hair lamentably
absent, careless whether they were seen or not. I heard screaming and
shouting, and then all such small sounds were swallowed up in another
roar--the third.

My thoughts flew to Eagle. If there were a raid he would be in danger.
He might be killed, and I should never see him again. I didn't think at
the minute what might happen to the rest of us. Nothing and no one
seemed to matter except Eagle. Still only half conscious of what I did,
unable to decide what might be best to do, I dropped on my k