this errand. After considerable
parley--for Miss Woppit wisely insisted upon being convinced of her
visitors' honorable intentions--these two men were admitted, and so the
alarm was transmitted to Casey's, Miss Woppit meanwhile exhibiting
violent alarm lest her brother Jim should come to harm in pursuing the
fugitives.

As for Jim Woppit, he never once lost his head. When the rest of us came
up to the scene of the robbery he had formed a plan of pursuit. It was
safe, he said, to take for granted that there was a gang of the outlaws.
They would undoubtedly strike for Eagle Pass, since there was no possible
way of escape in the opposite direction, the gulch, deep and wide,
following the main road close into camp. Ten of us should go with
him--ten of the huskiest miners mounted upon the stanchest bronchoes the
camp could supply. "We shall come up with the hellions before mornin',"
said he, and then he gritted his teeth significantly. A brave man and a
cool man, you 'll allow; good-hearted, too, for in the midst of all the
excitement he thought of his sister, and he said, almost tenderly, to
Three-fingered Hoover: "I can trust you, pardner, I know. Go up to the
cabin and tell her it's all right--that I 'll be back to-morrow and that
she must n't be skeered. And if she is skeered, why, you kind o' hang
round there to-night and act like you knew everything was all O. K."

"But may be Hoover 'll be lonesome," suggested Barber Sam. He was a sly
dog.

"Then you go 'long too," said Jim Woppit. "Tell her I said so."

Three-fingered Hoover would rather--a good deal rather--have gone alone.
Yet, with all that pardonable selfishness, he recognized a certain
impropriety in calling alone at night upon an unprotected female. So
Hoover accepted, though not gayly, of Barber Sam's escort, and in a happy
moment it occurred to the twain that it might be a pious idea to take
their music instruments with them. Hardly, therefore, had Jim Woppit and
his posse flourished out of camp when Three-fingered Hoover and Barber
Sam, carrying Mother and the famous guitar, returned along the main road
toward The Bower.

When the cabin came in view--the cabin on the side hill with hollyhocks
standing guard round it--one of those subtle fancies in which Barber
Sam's active brain abounded possessed Barber Sam. It was to convey to
Miss Woppit's ear good tidings upon the wings of music. "Suppose we play
'All's Well'?" suggested Barber Sam.