rbara clasped and wrung her hands.

"Too late to fly!" she said. "Before we could get Sultan out of the
stable and saddle him they'll be here! There's no time for escape. You
must _hide_!"

"If they've got dogs, I'm a dead man," he rejoined, staring at the fast
nearing horsemen; "and I shall be dangling from that tree before an hour
has passed!"

Barbara flew to the nearest door and opened it, then the next, and the
next, glancing in wild and eager haste into each room to see in which
any hiding-place might be found--although she knew too well the simple
arrangements of the ranch offered no facilities for concealment. No
secret chambers, no sliding panels, no dark recesses nor trap-doors in
this plain wooden "frame" house. The outhouses? No, they would probably
be the first places searched; the natural idea of the pursuers would be
that he might have sought refuge there unknown to the inmates of the
house. There were no cellars, no possible safe hiding-places on the
lower floor; on the upper floor there were but three rooms--Mr. and Mrs.
Thorne's room, Barbara's room, and the "guest-room." All were plainly
furnished with bare necessaries: no "old oak chests," no tapestries nor
hanging draperies, no curtained recesses, no place to hide a good-sized
dog, much less a full-grown man. Barbara's was the only one of the
bedrooms that could boast of a cupboard--a long, narrow cupboard which
she used as a wardrobe, and kept her dresses there hung on pegs. This
was the only place.

There was not a moment to lose in talk. Barbara had hardly time to go
downstairs, look round the kitchen, and assure herself that there were
no traces of Desmond's presence to be detected there, when the trampling
of horses sounded close at hand. She heard some of the party ride to the
front, some to the back, and she knew they were surrounding the house,
before there was a sharp, imperative knock on the front door. Barbara
opened it. She stood there--a candle she had just lighted in her hand--a
graceful, composed figure, with a placid, inquiring look.

The men who were gathered on the threshold looked somewhat taken aback
by the appearance of a lady then and there.

"Excuse our intrusion, madam," said the foremost; "but we have called to
inquire if there is anyone in this house but the members of your own
family?"

"No one," she replied; and the feeble flicker of the candle showed the
look of innocent, yet naturally somewhat anxious and surpri