For the space of several seconds the girls stood staring at the figure
outside the window. Then, the man turned sharply, and Hetty gasped as she
heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow below. There was a little of it
on the verandah, and the stars shone brilliantly.
"Catch hold of the frame here, Flo," she said breathlessly. "Now, push
with all your might."
Miss Schuyler did as she was bidden. The double sashes moved with a sharp
creaking, and while she shivered as the arctic cold struck through her,
Hetty stretched out an arm and drew the man in. Then with a tremendous
effort she shut the window and pulled the curtains together. There was
darkness in the room now, and one of the cow-boys called out below.
"Hear anything, Jake?"
"Somebody shutting a door in the house there," said another man, and
Hetty, passing between the curtains, could see two figures move across the
snow, and the little scintillation from something that was carried by one
of them, and she realized that they had very narrowly averted a tragedy.
"Flo," she said, with a little quiver in her voice, "light the lamp quick.
If they see the room dark they might come up."
Miss Schuyler was unusually clumsy, but at last the light sprang up, and
showed Larry standing just inside the curtain with the dust of snow on his
fur coat and cap. His face looked a little less bronzed than usual, but he
showed no other sign of discomposure. Hetty was very pale as she stood in
front of him with the pistol still in her hand. She dropped it on a chair
with a shiver, and broke into a little strained laugh.
"You are quite sure they didn't see you, Larry? You took a terrible risk
just now."
Grant smiled, more with his lips than his eyes. "Yes," he said, "I guess I
did. I taught you to shoot as well as most men, Hetty."
Hetty gasped again and sank limply into the nearest chair. "What brought
you here?" she said. "Still, you can't get away now. Sit down, Larry."
Grant sat down with a bow to Miss Schuyler, and fumbled in the pocket of
his big fur coat. "I came to give you something you sent me by mistake,"
he said. "I would not have come this way if I could have helped it, but I
saw there was a man with a rifle every here and there as I crept up
through the bluff, and it was quite a while before I could swing myself up
by a pillar on to the verandah. You have been anxious about this, Hetty?"
He laid a packet on the table, and Hetty's eyes shone as she took it up.
"Couldn't you have given it to somebody to bring me? It would have been
ever so much safer," she said.
"No," said the man simply, "I don't think I could."
Hetty understood him, and so did Miss Schuyler, while the meaning of the
glance her companion cast at her was equally plain. Miss Torrance's face
was still pallid, but there was pride in her eyes.
"I wonder if you guessed what was in that letter, Mr. Grant?" Flora
Schuyler asked.