Away they scampered as hard as they could run down the rough path, while Tabitha and Glory wrestled with the two little sleepers, trying to rouse them from their slumber so they might walk down to the cottage instead of having to be carried. But Rosslyn refused to waken thoroughly, and created such a scene that it was some minutes before they could coax him to follow them down the trail. So when they entered the moonlit kitchen, leading the stumbling boy and carrying Janie, who could not keep her eyes open or her feet under her, the rest of the family had vanished completely.

"Can they be in bed already?" asked Tabitha in surprise. "Have we been wrestling with those children so long?"

Gloriana tiptoed across the floor and opened the door to the room where the four sisters slept, and disclosed four flushed faces peacefully reposing on their pillows. Mercedes and Irene were already fast asleep, and the other two so near the land of Nod that their eyes merely fluttered open for an instant at the sound of the opening door, and then drowsily fell again.

Satisfied, Gloriana turned to Tabitha, busy trying to slip Rosslyn's nightgown over his limp body, and whispered, "All serene!"

"Then skip off to bed," said the other girl. "I will bring Janie when I come."

"But----"

"Oh, it is just the bread. I want to knead it down once more. It won't take me half a jiffy, but if I don't do it now, it will be all over the floor by morning."

So Gloriana crept wearily away to her room, for it had been a long, hard, disappointing day, but a moment later she scurried back into the kitchen; and when Tabitha wheeled about in surprise at her hasty entrance, she laughed nervously, half apologetically, "I kicked someone's shoes under the bed! Don't know whether they are my own or a burglar's!"

Knowing how timid the red-haired girl still felt on the desert at night, Tabitha refrained from smiling at what seemed an uncalled-for fright, and said rea.s.suringly, "No burglars ever visit Silver Bow.

There is nothing in a miner's shack to tempt them."

"I should think there would be plenty of gold nuggets," answered Gloriana in surprise.

"Not many in Silver Bow houses, I reckon," Tabitha placidly replied, "But if you are afraid to go to bed alone, you better wait for me.

I'll be ready in a minute."

She did not mean to speak scornfully, for she sympathized heartily with the sensitive gain remembering with what horror the desert nights used to fill her when Silver Bow first became her home. But Gloriana thought she detected a hint of ridicule in her companion's voice, and hurriedly departed for their room once more, saying with a great show of bravado, "Oh, I'm not afraid! Come to think of it, I believe I left my slippers at the foot of the bed, and that is probably what I hit."

The door closed behind her again, and Tabitha, smiling sympathetically at the girl's attempt at bravery, began to cover the mound of soft, white dough in the huge pan, when a wild, unearthly shriek echoed through the house, followed by the sharp crack of a pistol, and the m.u.f.fled fall of a body.

For one brief instant Tabitha stood rooted to the spot, fairly paralyzed with horror. Then the thought of Glory gave wings to her feet, and, heedless of her own danger, she flew for the scene of disaster, whispering to herself, "Oh, why did I leave the house unlocked all the evening while we were gone?"

As the door of her room swung back on its hinges, the first thing her eyes fell upon was the flickering, smoking, chimneyless lamp standing on the low dresser; and even in her terror she wondered how it chanced that careful Glory had neglected to protect the light properly. The next object that met her gaze was Glory herself, leaning white and limp against the closet door, holding a battered, smoking pistol at arm's length from her.

"Glory, are you hurt?" she gasped.

"No!"

"But the gun--the shot----"

"No one's shot--only the lamp chimney! I aimed at the--the burglars under the bed, and shot off the lamp chimney," she panted, beginning to laugh hysterically, and tightening her grasp on the rusty gun.

"Where is the burglar?" Intrepidly she stooped and peered under the bed, half expecting to see the disturber of their peace still hiding there.

"In the closet,---both of them!"

"Two?"

"Yes."

"Oh, Glory!"

"They are locked in. Here is the key."

"I must go for the constable."

A scuffling sound suddenly issued from the closet, and Gloriana cried in terror, "And leave me here alone with them?"

"There is no other way. I'll be gone but a minute. They surely can't get loose in that time!" And she darted from the room without giving Gloriana opportunity for further objections.

Hardly had the sound of her racing footsteps died away in the distance, however, when the red-haired guard, leaning against the door, half dead with fear, was electrified at hearing a m.u.f.fled voice call through the keyhole, "I say, Glory, let us out, do! We were just a-foolin'.

Didn't you know 'twas us? Please don't turn us over to the sheriff!"

"'Twas Tabitha's story about the Ivy Hall ghost that made us think of it," pleaded Toady. "We ain't sure-enough burglars. We just meant to scare you a little bit."

"And you sure scared _us_ enough to make up," coaxed Billiard. "Please let us out before Tabitha gets back. She said she'd write Uncle Hogan the next time we got into trouble."

"And that will mean he will take us away from here," wheedled Toady.

"He's awful hard on a fellow."

"You deserve it!" suddenly answered Glory, with a grimness that startled even the girl herself.

"Then you won't let us out?" cried the boys in great dismay.

"I--I haven't decided yet," Gloriana was forced to admit.

"But Tabitha will be back directly."

"Yes, she's a swift runner. I don't think she will be gone long."

Glory was beginning to enjoy the strange situation.

"Oh, Glory, don't keep us here, please! prayed Billiard desperately.

"We'll _never_ play burglar again!" promised repentant Toady.

"No, it will be something else the next time," said their jailer heartlessly.

"If you'll just set us free this time, we'll be reg'lar sissy girls all the rest of the summer," they cried.

"You have promised so many times--" Glory began wearily.

"Oh, I can hear her coming!" cried Toady, half frantic at thought of the constable whom Tabitha had gone to summon.

Gloriana thought she could, also, and swiftly turning the key in the lock, she let the quaking prisoners out, urging them on with a violent push as they scurried past her, and hissing in their ears, "Scamper!

If you aren't in bed when she gets here, she'll know you did it."

But they needed no urging. Their feet scarcely touched the floor, it seemed to Gloriana, as they made a mad rush for their room; and when Tabitha returned a moment later, alone, they lay tense and breathless under the coverlets of the cot.

"Glory!" they heard her e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e. "You let them get away from you!"

"I couldn't help it," replied the red-haired girl in excited tones.

"Couldn't you get anyone? Wasn't the constable at home?"