called me Nicky
by mistake six hours ago, before Collins disagreed with me flatly.

"Stay here? Not much! Won't work--Macartney'd drop on us! Oh, I know he
won't be able to find our real entrance to this place unless Charliet
gives us away, and I'm not worrying about that! But, after he realizes
Miss Valenka has vanished"--he said her real name perfectly
casually--"and when Charliet and most of his guns vanish too, and his
men begin to get picked off one by one, how long do you suppose it will
be before Macartney connects the three things--and smells a rat? He'll
sense Charliet and a girl can't be fighting him alone. For all we know
he'll guess you must have got out of Thompson's stope somehow, and dig
away his rock fence to see! And I imagine we'd look well in here if he
did!"

"It's just what we would look," said I. "You ass, Collins, with
Macartney ignorant of the real way in on us, and he and his gang digging
open Thompson's tunnel against the daylight, with you and me and Dunn in
the dark on that shelf in Thompson's stope we came in here by, we'd have
the drop on the lot. Except--Marcia!" Her name jerked out of me. We
would have to count Marcia in with Macartney's gang; and, remembering
she had known me all her life, it made me smart.

"Oh, Miss Wilbraham--I should let _her_ rip!" Collins returned
callously. "Listen, Stretton; what you say's all very well, only we
can't count on holding this place when we're discovered, while it's a
matter of _if_ Charliet can get guns! Miss Marcia's rifle and her toy
popgun aren't going to save us, and I doubt if Charliet can swipe any
more. What I say is let's cut some horses out of the stable after dark,
all four of us clear out on them to Caraquet, and set the sheriff and
his men after Macartney. Unless," he turned boldly to her, "you don't
want that, Miss Valenka?"

But if she had been going to answer, which I don't think she was, I cut
her off. "We can't let Marcia rip--don't talk nonsense, Collins! She's
Dudley's sister, if she and Macartney are a firm. We can't clear out and
leave her with a man like that!"

"We can't take her to Caraquet," Collins argued with some point. "You
own she doesn't know anything about Macartney's wolf dope; you haven't
any witnesses to prove he tried it on your wagon, or to set the wolves
on Dudley. Miss Marcia would just up and swear your whole story was a
lie--and all Caraquet would believe her! Nobody alive ever heard of such
a thing as