e cave, the Overland girls were peering from the opening, but, by
agreement, not a shot was fired by them or by Lieutenant Wingate.

The shooting kept up briskly for several minutes, then died away, and
silence settled over the scene. Hippy remained near the camp so long
that the girls began to feel concerned for him. This was dispelled
nearly half an hour later when they discovered him, well bent over to
hide his movements, running towards them.

"Whew! They didn't do a thing to our tents. Shot them full of holes," he
exclaimed. "They are going through everything and they're getting
worried, judging from what I overheard. We played a neat trick on them,"
chuckled the lieutenant.

"Don't crow," advised Emma Dean. "It isn't daylight yet. I will
con-centrate. I con-centrated all the time you were away, and you came
back, didn't you?"

"'Con-centrate' on those ruffians and drive them away; 'con-centrate' on
Tom Gray; 'con-centrate' on the Mystery Man--'con-centrate' on anybody,
but for the love of Mike don't let loose any of that 'imponderable
quantity' on me," begged Lieutenant Wingate.

Hippy advised the girls to lie down on their blankets and try to sleep,
saying that he would keep awake and watch at the cave entrance, but none
of them felt the slightest desire for sleep, especially when the rifle
fire opened up again. They wondered if the attackers were shooting at
shadows. Not more than a dozen shots were fired and these at intervals,
after which there was no more shooting during the rest of the night.

At daybreak Hippy dozed off, first nodding to Nora to take the watch for
him, which she did. The others of the party were sitting on the rocky
floor of the cave leaning against the wall, also dozing. Nora, for a
short time, sat watching her husband who was snoring loudly; then she
got up and peered out at the reddening sky. Unthinkingly, she stepped
from the cave and stood inhaling deeply of the fragrant morning air.

Nora suddenly uttered a cry and clapped a hand to her left cheek. At the
same instant, it seemed, the report of a rifle woke the echoes.

Hippy, awake and on his feet in an instant, jerked Nora back into the
cave, but not before a bullet had flattened itself against the rocks
close to his head.

"Lie down and keep tight to the sides of the cave!" he commanded. "They
know where we are now. Fine! Fine! Emma Dean could do no worse."

No more shots were fired for fully an hour, then suddenly bullets