agin a woman, Pierre. Naw, niver a wan. Aw swate, swate, she was, wid a
heart--a heart, Hilton's wife, aw yis!"

Pierre waved Macavoy into silence. "The girl waked after three hours with
a start. Her hand caught at her heart. 'Oh,' she said, still staring at
us, 'I thought that they had come!' A little after she and Hilton's wife
went to another room. All at once there was a sound of horses outside,
and then a knock at the door, and four men come in. They were the girl's
hunters.

"It was hard to tell what to do all in a minute; but I saw at once the
best thing was to act for all, and to get all the men inside the house.
So I whispered to Hilton, and then pretended that I was a great man in
the Company. I ordered Hilton to have the horses cared for, and, not
giving the men time to speak, I fetched out the old brown brandy,
wondering all the time what could be done. There was no sound from the
other room, though I thought I heard a door open once. Hilton played the
game well, and showed nothing when I ordered him about, and agreed word
for word with me when I said no girl had come, laughing when they told
why they were after her. More than one of them did not believe at first;
but, pshaw, what have I been doing all my life to let such fellows doubt
me? So the end of it was that I got them all inside the house. There was
one bad thing--their horses were all fresh, as Hilton whispered to me.
They had only rode them a few miles--they had stole or bought them at the
first ranch to the west of the Post. I could not make up my mind what to
do. But it was clear I must keep them quiet till something shaped.

"They were all drinking brandy when Hilton's wife come into the room. Her
face was, mon Dieu! so innocent, so childlike. She stared at the men; and
then I told them she was deaf and dumb, and I told her why they had come.