stenographer, up to the cottage
on the second mesa to tell Mrs. Dawson that he would not be up for
dinner, when the door opened to admit Miss Brewster.

"'And the way into my parlor is up a winding stair,'" she quoted
blithely and quite as if the air were not thick with threatening
possibilities. "So this is where you live, is it? What a dreary, bleak,
blank place!"

"It was, a moment ago; but it isn't, now," he said, and his soberness
made the saying something more than a bit of commonplace gallantry. Then
he gave her his swing-chair as the only comfortable one in the bare
room, adding, "I hope you have come to tell me that your mother has
changed her mind."

"Indeed I haven't! What do you take us for, Howard?"

"For an exceedingly rash party of pleasure-hunters--if you have decided
to stay here through what is likely to happen before to-morrow morning.
Besides, you are making it desperately hard for me."

She laughed lightly. "If you can't be afraid for yourself, you'll be
afraid for other people, won't you? It seems to be one of your
necessities."

He let the taunt go unanswered.

"I can't believe that you know what you are facing, any of you, Eleanor.
I'll tell you what I told your mother: there will be battle, murder, and
sudden death let loose here in Angels before to-morrow morning. And it is
so utterly unnecessary for any of you to be involved."

She rose and stood before him, putting a comradely hand on his shoulder,
and looking him fairly in the eyes.

"There was a ring of sincerity in that, Howard. Do you really mean that
there is likely to be violence?"

"I do; it is almost certain to come. The trouble has been brewing for a
long time--ever since I came here, in fact. And there is nothing we can
do to prevent it. All we can do is to meet it when it does come, and
fight it out."

"'We,' you say; who else besides yourself, Howard?" she asked.

"A little handful of loyal ones."

"Then you will be outnumbered?"

"Six to one here in town if the shopmen go out. They have already
threatened to burn the company's buildings if I don't comply with their
demands, and I know the temper of the outfit well enough to give it full
credit for any violence it promises. Won't you go and persuade the
others to consent to run for it, Eleanor? It is simply the height of
folly for you to hold the _Nadia_ here. If I could have had ten words
with your father this morning before he went out to the mine, you would