He took her hands in his and held them tight. "Miss Torrance, much of
the outcome of to-night depends on you. We're going to fight harder
for you than for everything else lumped together. I must ask you to
forget Adrian for the time being. May we trust you?"

Her reply was a return squeeze to the hands that held hers.

"I'll not flinch," she said. "But I'm not giving up hope."

He laughed. "Adrian will be proud of you."

He dropped her hand and turned back to the door. "Lock it behind me,"
he ordered. "In fifteen minutes exactly I'll knock twice. Open
without a word. I have Williams and the train crew."

He found his companions lying where he had left them. Certain
unmistakable signs of life among the trees over the grade they had
heard, but that was all. Murphy was growling into the loose sand
beneath his chin.

"Mother o' Mike! Why don't ye rush thim? There's bunches jist over
there. Fir-rst thing ye know they'll get away. A good scr-rap going
to waste, it is. And sure why are we lying here like a gang o'
thieves? I got hould of a shillalah that fits me hand like a glove,
glory be! The Lord put it there, He did. Sure He intinds me to use
it. Mollie'd be ashamed o' me."

"You'll have your stomach full of fighting before you're through,"
promised Mahon.

"Be gad, I don't belave ye know an Oirishman's appetite at all."

"Keep low," ordered Mahon, crawling forward, "and quiet."

"The m'anest koind o' foighting I iver took a hand in, it is," grumbled
Murphy, shaking the sand from his whiskers. But he fastened his eyes
to the dim movement of Constable Williams' heels and crawled after him.

Thirty yards they had advanced on hands and knees, and Mahon was
searching for a depression to lead off back of the shack, when Murphy
whispered huskily:

"Any chance up there, Sergeant, o' nading a gun? 'Cause I left mine
back there. But, praise be, I got the shillalah," he added brightly.

Mahon sighed. "You idiot! Lord"--to Constable Williams--"I'll be glad
when I have him locked in. . . ."

A string of muttered oaths told them of Murphy's return.

"Another mouthful o' sand! Darn their hides! If iver I get me hands
on a bohunk in this wor-rld again--" He spat noisily. "And all for a
gun I don't know how to use. But it'll make a n'ise. Maybe it'll do
to disthract their attintion till I get me shillalah swinging."

Torrance received them with a burst of joy, shaking each by hand in