e could hardly hear her above the ru

ing along knee-deep in a torrent. "T

again, but that was at

rings, as you may say, and as we stood there, looking up, I could have sworn that I saw a man with a gun peering d

have been impossible to find, or a more outraged one. Aggie let down her dress, which she had pinned round her waist, releasing about a quar

!" said T

castically. "Why not just have kep

ng hedgerows! And of course thes

irt, got her sleeping-bag off Modestine's back, and-went t

nesday, late in

ed for

to dry against the time when we should need them. Aggie sneezed incessantly in the smoke, and Tish groaned in her corner. I was about crazy. On Thursday, when

e did not go home for so

potato salad and we sat round the fire, listening to her

to hunt Indians," she was saying. "They got as far as this cave, and one evening

the cave. Tish had her rifle to her shoulder in a second, and Aggie shut her eyes. But it was not

to the firelight, "but-you don't happen

wered t

er-certainly. Aggie, give

ur toilet things set out on a clean towel on a flat stone and a mirror hung above, and at our lantern on another stone, with magazines and books grouped round it. Aggie, finding some trailing arb

th a long breath. "It's the first dry spot I've seen f

re you s

on a walking tour, or w

ou'd better wait u

arve?"

ll of nuts and be

in

is plenty

hunder Creek; in fact, I lost everything except my good name. What's that

s still staring at him. To find on Thunder Cloud Mountain a young man who quoted Shakespeare and h

h the matches?" she demanded

remember the little match-seller in Hans Christian Andersen's story, who warmed h

n Andersen an

ind a cave?"

ave," he s

t w

was out on the mountainside. They nee

xclaimed. "Thi

t I had been stopping in it gave me no

of yours in it," Ti

ng but my good name and my sprained ankle

ately," said Tish. "A

me more wretched than I already am? I assure you, if yo

e. He wished us to stay on. But as he limped a step o

course. So long as you are dry and co

rtable too," snapped Tish. "

g to eat; he looks starved. If you're afraid it isn't proper we c

him. He had limped back and

anything of the bandit

ndi

ought you had probab

automobile and the four men with gun

e was a gentleman. Even Charlie Sands would probably have said "them." "They got away v

him. "The one w

d had been held up. The pursuit had gone in another direction, but he wa

, and here was a man brought providentially to us! She asked him at once to join our party and look

aid with a smile. "I, wit

he looked at it. "Great Scott!" he said. "What a weapon for a woman! Why, you do

t night anyhow, although we had to beg him to do that. "How do you know I'll not get up in the n

have nothing more valuable than the portable stove; and in the s

-and dressed for a walking tour, in knickerbockers, with a blue flannel shirt, heavy low shoes and a soft hat. His han

y remember when he had eaten. So we made him some tea and buttered

the last spoonful, "what a wo

ooking at the fire, and we all saw that

an' until you are hungry or uncomfortable or hurt, and then you ar

man who has given th

ggins, a roofer, who met with an accident due to an icy

is it?" she

ut we could all see

t-partly at le

--" He stopped abruptly. "But why sh

is to make the man comfortable. We did all we could. I dried his coat by the fire, and Tish made hot arnica compresses for his ankle, which was blue a

ted to her bathing his ankle. "I'm doing for you what I s

ersist in regarding men as absolute protection against fire, burglars and lightning. But they do. A sharp storm came up at that time, and ordinarily Aggie would have been in he

ok at it, Ti

There's a man across

tour gentleman, who had his foot in a collapsible basin

s up a bit?" he suggested. "If there are bandits round it

out and sat in the warm darkness. And tha

only part of the truth. I am on a walking tour, but not for pleasure. To be frank, I-

gie gasp i

nded. She might treat his ankle as she would treat Charlie Sands

an entire arsenal in my knapsack, but, as I say, I lost everything

Aggie sugge

ill have. Ladies, I'm not

vernment service?" Tish

eorge Muldoon, generally

vice to my church, with nothing missing and only a dent in one of the silver pitchers? Hadn't he just sent up Ti

asped Tish.

ght, ladies, and for a day or two, why not adopt me to be your ne

e and all. We sat back and stared at him, open-mouthed. To think that he had com

remembered perfectly about getting back the silver for the church, and about Tis

y?" Aggie brea

dmitted. "I don't m

at?" asked Aggie, who'd been sit

chap can't very well go to a girl's father and tell him that, if somebody murders som

retty?" a

e was ardent enough

raining, and the moon was coming up over the Camel's Back. We could hear Modestine stirring in t

ghtfully-"If only I could get my han

, from, behind the kimono screen across the cave, loud noises told us that Mr.

red. "But if it is he's got a wife and two