gling hard to keep tears back. She
simply could not answer.

Seth took the task upon himself. He seemed to understand, although he was
not looking her way.

"Don't worrit the gal, Ma," he said, in his gentle fashion, so that
Rosebud felt like dropping the bandages and fleeing from the room. "Say,
jest git right to it an' fix me up. I 'low ther's li'ble to be work doin'
'fore this night's out."

"God a-mussy, I hope not, Seth, boy!" the old woman said, with a deep
intake of breath. But her busy fingers hastened. She tenderly laid the
wool, saturated in carbolic oil, upon the gash. Seth bore it without
flinching. "More'n six year," she added, taking the bandages from Rosebud
and applying them with the skill of long experience, "an' we've had no
trouble, thank God. But I knew it 'ud come sure. Rube had it in his eye."

"Wher's Rube now?" asked Seth, cutting her short.

"Doin' guard out front."

The bandage was adjusted, and Seth rose and was helped into his coat.

"Guess I'll git out to him."

He found it hard, for once, to sit in there with the womenfolk. His
feeling was one common to men of action.

"You're feelin' easy?" Ma asked him anxiously, as he moved to the door.

"Dead right, Ma."

The old woman shook her head doubtfully, and Rosebud's troubled eyes
followed him as he moved away. She had scarcely spoken since they returned
to the house. Her brain was still in a whirl and she was conscious of a
weak, but almost overpowering, inclination to tears. The one thing that
stood out above all else in her thoughts was Seth's wound.

No one had questioned her; no one had blamed her. These simple people
understood her feelings of the moment too well. Later they knew they would
learn all about it. For the present there was plenty to be done.

Rube had been making preparations. Their plans needed no thinking out.
Such an emergency as the present had always been foreseen, and so there
was no confusion. Charlie Rankin had gone on to old Joe Smith, and that
individual would be dispatched post-haste in the direction of the white
tents that had been seen on the plains. For the rest the horses in the
barn were ready harnessed, and Ma could be trusted to get together the
household things ready for decamping. There was nothing to do but to keep
a night-long watch.

Seth had crossed the passage, and was passing through the parlor, out of
which the front door opened. Rosebud hesitated. Then with something almost
like a