to put up my hair, but let it hang down my back; I didn't
even tie my shoes, or fasten more than three hooks of my easiest blouse:
one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the waist. Consequently, I
was ready before the Dalziels, but waited for them outside the door of
their suite, almost dazedly watching people--men and women, half
clothed--dashing out of their rooms toward the stairs and elevators.
Some of these were jabbering to each other, but nobody seemed to know
what had happened. They were merely wondering, as we were; and in the
big hall, where some of the lights had been switched on, we could glean
no further details. Several of the hotel employes had arrived on the
scene, more or less dressed, and they did what they could to calm their
guests. Presently one of the managers appeared, and he strongly advised
every one to remain in the hotel. If any trouble were afoot, it would be
safer indoors than out, and news might be expected soon. He had already
sent a trustworthy messenger, he explained, to inquire of the police and
the answer would be more reliable than mere wild gossip picked up in the
street, among the crowd.

Some of the older men, and all the women, took the manager's advice,
though a good many young men disregarded it, and went off foraging for
news. Those of us who remained in the house, however, didn't think of
meekly returning to our rooms. We herded together in the hall of the
hotel, in a fever of expectation, strangers hobnobbing like old
acquaintances and exchanging opinions on the mysterious alarm. The time
of waiting seemed long; but we three had not been below more than twenty
minutes, perhaps, when people who had been out began to stream back with
tidings of a sort for their families. No two men had quite the same
story to tell. One had heard that a band of _Apaches_ from a low quarter
of the town had organized a scare to stir up the military. Another had
been told on good authority that the Mexicans had fired guns from across
the river and injured one of the tall buildings in El Paso, nobody knew
which. A third assured everybody that our guns had been fired, but
charged only with blank, to frighten the Mexicans, at the moment when
they hoped to give us a surprise. By and by, the messenger dispatched by
the manager came back; but he had little new light to throw on the
situation, except to assure every one on the authority of the police
that there had been no raid, and there was no da