se whisper. "When I
tell you, turn the lamp down and open the door. I am going to see who is
there."

The next moment she had opened a drawer of the bureau, while as she
stepped forward with something glinting in her hand, Flora Schuyler, who
heard a whispered word, turned the lamp right out in her confusion, and,
because she dared not stand still, crept after her companion. With a swift
motion, Hetty drew the window-curtains back, and Miss Schuyler gasped. The
stars were shining outside, and the dark figure of a man was silhouetted
against the blue clearness of the night.

"Come back," she cried. "Oh, he's coming in. Hetty, I must scream."

Hetty's fingers closed upon her arm with a cruel grip. "Stop," she said.
"If you do, they'll shoot him. Don't be a fool, Flo."

It was too dark to see clearly, but Flora Schuyler realized with a painful
fluttering of her heart and a great relief whose the white face outside
the window must be.

XVI

LARRY SOLVES THE DIFFICULTY

For the space of several seconds the girls stood staring at the figure
outside the window. Then, the man turned sharply, and Hetty gasped as she
heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow below. There was a little of it
on the verandah, and the stars shone brilliantly.

"Catch hold of the frame here, Flo," she said breathlessly. "Now, push
with all your might."

Miss Schuyler did as she was bidden. The double sashes moved with a sharp
creaking, and while she shivered as the arctic cold struck through her,
Hetty stretched out an arm and drew the man in. Then with a tremendous
effort she shut the window and pulled the curtains together. There was
darkness in the room now, and one of the cow-boys called out below.

"Hear anything, Jake?"

"Somebody shutting a door in the house there," said another man, and
Hetty, passing between the curtains, could see two figures move across the
snow, and the little scintillation from something that was carried by one
of them, and she realized that they had very narrowly averted a tragedy.

"Flo," she said, with a little quiver in her voice, "light the lamp quick.
If they see the room dark they might come up."

Miss Schuyler was unusually clumsy, but at last the light sprang up, and
showed Larry standing just inside the curtain with the dust of snow on his
fur coat and cap. His face looked a little less bronzed than usual, but he
showed no other sign of discomposure. Hetty was very pale as she stood in
fr