"Oh, you mustn't tell!" pleaded Allifair, frantically. "I promised him I wouldn't, you know."
"Promised who?" inquired Sharps, and as she shrank away from him Hall laid a soothing hand on her head.
"She came," he said, "to deliver me a message—a friend has offered to help us escape. We were engaged to be married and I came up here to find her, but she has been held a kind of prisoner at the Rock House."
"Yes, but didn't I hear her say," challenged Sharps, still unconvinced, "that some one was coming to kill the Bassetts?"
"You bet you did!" put in Bill, "because I heard it myself. This here don't look good to me."
"If you gentlemen will just step back," suggested McIvor quietly, "and let us talk this over a minute——"
"All right," spoke up Winchester, coming quickly to the front, "get back, boys; we know he's our friend."
"Well, I don't," grumbled Sharps, but he made room, reluctantly, when Winchester shoved him away. They gathered in a knot in the back part of the room, arguing angrily among themselves, while Hall talked in low tones with Allifair.
"I am in honor bound to stay," he ended gently, "so you will have to go back—and wait."