with you."

"No."

"Yes!" Her tone was unmistakable.

"Nan, you can't do it," whispered de Spain energetically. "A chance
bullet----"

She spoke with decision: "I go with you. I can use a rifle. Better
both of us be killed than one. Help me up on this roof. I've climbed
it a hundred times. My rifle is in my room. Quick, Henry."

Overruling his continued objections, she lifted her foot to his hand,
caught hold of the corner-post, and springing upward got her hands on
the low end of the roof boards. With the agility of a cat, she put her
second foot on de Spain's shoulder, gained the sloping roof, and
scrambled on her hands and knees up toward the window of her room.
The heavy rain and the slippery boards made progress uncertain, but
with scarcely any delay, she reached her window and pushed open the
casement sash. A far-off peal of thunder echoed down from the
mountains. Luckily, no flash had preceded it, and Nan, rifle in hand,
slid safely down to the end of the lean-to, where de Spain, waiting,
caught one foot on his shoulder, and helped her to the ground. He
tried again to make her stay behind the house. Finding his efforts
vain, he directed her how to make a zigzag advance, how to utilize for
cover every rock and tree she could find in the line toward the pine,
and, above all, to throw herself flat and sidewise after every
shot--and not to fire often.

In this way, amid the falling of rain and the uncharted dangers of the
darkness, they advanced on the pine-tree. Surprisingly little effort
seemed necessary to drive off whoever held it. De Spain made his way
slowly but safely to the disputed point and then understood--the
horses were gone.

He had hardly rejoined Nan, who waited at a safe distance, and told
her the bad news, when a fresh discharge of shots came from two
directions--seemingly from the house and the stable. A moment later
they heard sharp firing far down the Gap. This was their sole avenue
of escape. It was bad enough, under the circumstances, to negotiate
the trail on horseback--but to expose Nan, who had but just put
herself under his protection, to death from a chance bullet while
stumbling along on foot, surrounded by enemies--who could follow the
flash of their own shots if they were forced to use their rifles, and
close in on them at will--was an undertaking not to be faced.

They withdrew to the shelter of a large rock familiar to Nan even in
the dark. While de Spain was debating in h