“But we can’t stay here!” cried Dorothy, in great distress.
“That is so, Doro. We have to catch that train,” agreed Tavia.
“There’s more’n one train stops at Killock, Miss,” said Molly Colt, nee Crater, to Dorothy Dale. “And pap will git tired and go away.”
“Nop,” said Lance, the cowboy. “I promised to git these ladies to Killock in time for the mawnin’ train, an’ I’m goin’ ter do it, or bust er leg!”
“And it’s after midnight now,” said Dorothy, looking at her watch.
“Yuh’ll hafter slip out the back way, git yuh ponies, an’ scoot,” advised Whistler through his whiskers.
“We’ll all light out that way,” said young Colt.
“But we don’t wanter get these girls in any trouble,” said Mrs. Colt.
“We’ll leave ’em at once. Make for Branch Coulie. That’ll toll your pap off their trail,” said her husband of five minutes.
Dorothy Dale, although she was much frightened by the situation, did not lose her presence of mind. “Why don’t you and your husband stay here, Mrs. Colt?” she said, clinging to the older girl’s hand. “You remain in the house—or in this cellar Mr. Whistler speaks of, while Mr. Lance and Tavia and I slip out at the back and get away. Your father will think we are you.”