"Get up," he ordered, "and explain the meaning of all this."
Tom slowly obeyed, crawled to his knees and then to his feet. His companion, Pete Rollins, did the same. They presented a sorry spectacle, and Douglas could scarcely repress a smile. But Nan laughed outright when she saw them.
"My, what beauties!" she exclaimed. "This isn't Hallowe'en, Tom. Did you think it was? You'll know better next time, won't you?"
"'Deed I will, miss," was the emphatic reply. "No more sich doin's fer me, I tell ye that."
Nell in the meantime had procured a basin of water, a wash-cloth and a towel. She now stood before the battered men.
"Sit down, both of you," she quietly ordered. "It won't do for you to go home looking that way."
Meekly they obeyed and sat very still while she washed the blood from their faces.
"It's good of ye, miss," Tom told her. "We don't deserve sich kindness after what we said an' done to you to-night. Some would have kicked us out of the house an' left us there half dead."
"You, fer instance, Nan, eh?" Empty grinned, as he looked toward the girl.
"No, I wouldn't," Nan stoutly protested. "That would have been too good for them. I would like to keep them and start a travelling show throughout the country. I would make my fortune in a short time. They deserve to be treated like that for disturbing my peaceful slumbers. And just look at that door, all broken down. Who's going to fix it, I'd like to know?"