don't feel afraid, do you?"

"Oh, no!" announced Priscilla, trying her best to ape Virginia's careless
manner, and determined to _act_ like a good sport at least.

"Oh, no!" echoed Mary faintly.

Vivian was unspeakably glad that her lot had fallen with Virginia, and
that their bed was in the farther corner of the living-room.

"I wish Dorothy were here!" Virginia called fifteen minutes later to the
brave souls on the kitchen cot. "Then 'twould be perfectly perfect.
Good-night, everybody. Sweet dreams!"

"Sweet dreams!" whispered Priscilla to Mary, while she clutched Mary's
hand. "I don't expect to have a dream to-night! Mary, don't go to sleep
before I do! We'll have to manage it somehow! I'll die if you do!"

"I won't," promised Mary.

But they were tired from excitement, and sleep came in spite of unlocked
doors. A half hour passed and every homesteader was sleeping soundly. The
night wore on, midnight passed, and the still, stiller hours of the early
morning came. It was yet dark when Mary was rudely awakened by her
roommate kicking her with all her might. She sat up in bed, dazed,
frightened. Priscilla was clinging to her.

"Oh, Mary!" she breathed. "Listen! There are footsteps outside our window!
There are, I tell you! Listen!"

Mary listened. Her heart was in her mouth and choking her. Yes, there were
unmistakably footsteps outside. As they listened, the sound of breathing
became apparent.

"It _isn't_ our breathing, Mary," Priscilla whispered. "I tell you it
_isn't!_ It's--oh, the steps are coming nearer! They're on the path! Oh,
Virginia! V-i-r-g-i-n-i-a! V-I-R-G-I-N-I-A!!"

The last word ended in a mighty shout, which awoke Virginia and the
terrified Vivian. Before the shout was fairly completed, the cot in the
living-room was groaning beneath an added weight, and Virginia, striving
to rise, was encumbered by three pair of arms.

"Let me go, girls!" she cried. "Let me go, I tell you! No one's coming
into this cabin unless I say so! Remember that!"

By this time the steps were on the porch. Virginia, finally free from
embraces and on her feet, reached for Jean MacDonald's gun, and started
for the door, which she was just too late to open. Instead, the visitor
from without pushed it open, and the terrified Vigilantes on the bed,
hearing Virginia laugh, raised their frightened heads from the pillows to
meet the astonished gaze of poor old Siwash!

"Don't ever let the boys know," warned Virginia, as