lid and then turned like a flash toward the door.

No one appeared there, so she went close to survey the situation. The
troopers had dismounted, and stood in silence by their horses.

A grey-bearded man, whose red cheeks and nose shone vividly above the
whiskers, was strolling about with two or three others. They wore double-
breasted coats, and faded yellow sashes were wound under their black
leather sword-belts. The grey-bearded soldier was apparently giving
orders, pointing here and there.

Mary tiptoed to the feed-box. "They've all got off their horses," she
said to it. A finger projected from a knot-hole near the top, and said
to her very plainly, "Come closer." She obeyed, and then a muffled voice
could be heard: "Scoot for the house, lady, and if we don't see you
again, why, much obliged for what you done."

"Good-bye," she said to the feed-box.

She made two attempts to walk dauntlessly from the barn, but each time
she faltered and failed just before she reached the point where she
could have been seen by the blue-coated troopers. At last, however, she
made a sort of a rush forward and went out into the bright sunshine.

The group of men in double-breasted coats wheeled in her direction at
the instant. The grey-bearded officer forgot to lower his arm which had
been stretched forth in giving an order.

She felt that her feet were touching the ground in a most unnatural
manner. Her bearing, she believed, was suddenly grown awkward and