Billie kneeled down beside Minnie and put her arm around the poor girl’s neck, while she looked appealingly at her cousin.
“My poor child,” said Miss Campbell, after a very perceptible pause, “we won’t tell on your husband. He is certainly a very lawless character, but maybe he’ll reform if he has a chance.”
“Thank you! Thank you!” cried Minnie, kissing Miss Campbell’s small hand with all the fervor of her warm nature.
“Now, Minnie, go about your work as if nothing had happened. The girls will help you, and leave the rest to me. Well,” she observed in a low voice to Daniel Moore, who was standing by the window, looking anxiously out, “if any one had told me this morning that this evening I should be protecting a train robber from the law, I should never have believed them in the world. But things seem to happen out in the West that never could happen in the East.”
At that moment fully half a dozen horsemen dashed up to the door.
“Go and sit down,” whispered Daniel Moore. “I think we might protect this poor girl if we can, wrong as it would seem to the law.”
The door was flung open and several pistols were pointed into the room.
“Don’t move! Keep still, everybody, or you know where you’re at!”
“Nobody has any intention of moving. Come in,” said Daniel Moore.
A big man in a black slouch hat strode in.