would spring up and drive away at
the rocks which he knew sheltered them, almost driven to the point of
rushing out and trying to dislodge them by storm.

So the day wore by. They had been in the dugout since a little after
sunrise. Sunset was pale on the hilltops beyond them when Macdonald,
his strained and tired eyes to the loophole, saw Dalton and two of his
men slipping from rock to rock, drawing nearer for what he expected to
be the rush.

"Can you shoot?" he asked her, his mouth hot and dry as if his blood
had turned to liquid fire.

"Yes, I can shoot," she answered, steadily.

He tossed one of his revolvers across to her, dimly seen now in the
deepening gloom of the cave, and flung a handful of cartridges after
it.

"They're closing in on us for the rush, and I'm going to try to stop
them. Keep back there where you are, and hold your horse under cover
as long as you hear me shooting. If I stop first, call Dalton and tell
him who you are. I believe in that case he'll let you go."

"I'm going to help you," she said, rising resolutely. "When you--stop
shooting--" she choked a little over the words, her voice caught in a
dry little sob--"then I'll stop shooting, too!"

"Stay back there, Frances! Do you hear--stay back!"

Somebody was on the roof of the dugout; under his weight clods of
earth fell, and then, with a soft breaking of rotten timber, a booted
foot broke through. It was on Frances' side, and the fellow's foot
almost touched her saddle as her frightened horse plunged.

The man was tugging to drag his foot through the roof now, earth and
broken timber showering down. Macdonald only glanced over his
shoulder, as if leaving that trapped one to her. He was set for their
charge in front. She raised her revolver to fire as the other leg
broke through, and the fellow's body dropped into the enlarged hole.
At that moment the men in front fired a volley through the gaping
door. Frances saw the intruder drop to the ground, torn by the heavy
bullets from his companions' guns.

The place was full of smoke, and the turmoil of the frightened horses,
and the noise of quick shots from Macdonald's station across the door.
She could not make anything out in the confusion as she turned from
the dead man to face the door, only that Macdonald was not at his
place at the loophole now.

She called him, but her voice was nothing in the sound of firing. A
choking volume of smoke was packing the cave. She saw Macdonal