limbs refused to go any farther. After they had got
settled for the night, I thought I'd take a stroll. I supposed you would
all have gone to bed but I had a feeling I'd like to see Sunrise Camp by
starlight. I wouldn't have found it, however, if I had not heard the
calls for help on the bugle. There wasn't a light to be seen from the
road."

Elinor felt a secret pride at this statement. It was she, then, who had
brought the rescuer! Billie felt sure it was her own strong wish that
had drawn Richard to them in their great need, while Phoebe, filled with
the conviction of her faith, believed he had been sent in answer to her
fervent prayers.

If Richard had been consulted about this and had spoken the truth from
his heart, could he have explained the irresistible impulse that had
urged him to climb the steep road up the mountain on that dark night?

At this juncture, Ben and Percy, more dead than alive from running,
almost fell into the room.

"Great Caesar's ghost," Percy ejaculated in a weak voice, "but we have
had a fright about you, and here you are giving an evening reception!"

"Nothing has happened, then?" Ben managed to gasp.

"That little arch fiend led us into a jungle and lost us," went on
Percy. "We heard the bugle calls for help. Gee! But we have had a run."

"And you're all right? You're safe?" cried Ben, counting them over. "And
Mr. Hook has been protecting you? Thank heavens for that."

"My dear young man," observed Miss Campbell with some irritation, "will
you please to turn around and look at that front door or slide or
whatever you call the thing? I wish you to know that we have had one of
the most exciting evenings of our lives. This house was attacked and
broken into by a dozen ruffians and if it hadn't been for Alberdina,
there, who has the mind of a general and knew exactly how to build a
barricade with trunks, Phoebe would certainly have been tarred and
feathered, even before Mr. Hook came to our rescue----"

"He heard my bugle," announced Elinor.

"I wished for him," thought Billie.

"I prayed for him," said Phoebe in a low voice.

"If Richard Hook had not appeared and permitted himself to be shot by
Billie without uttering a sound----"

"Oh, I let out a yell," broke in Richard.

"We would have all been murdered, like enough."

"But where are your sister and Miss Swinnerton?" asked Ben.

"I suppose I had better be getting back to them," said Richard, who had
quite forgotten tha