"I'll argue with the boys and try to give you a fair start," stated the landlord. "But you'd better pack up in a hurry. You can't wait for to-morrow's train under my roof. I'll furnish you a livery hitch to the junction. Take the woman with you." It was an ugly crowd; the landlord was obliged to push back men when Crowley followed Lida into the tavern. Miss Elsham was just inside the door, where she had posted herself as a spectator and listener. "There's no telling what they'll do; they're bound to find out that I'm an operative," she quavered. "You must take me with you, Buck." He had been appointed her guardian and he could not refuse. But he glowered at Lida, white and trembling. Brophy came in after a struggle at the door; he slammed the portal and bolted it. "They're usually pretty genteel up here where wimmen are concerned," he told Lida, "but they're laying it all to you. They'll let you go, Crowley, if you'll go in a hurry. Are you one of 'em, too?" he bluntly asked Miss Elsham, ready to suspect all strangers. She nodded. "I'm going with Crowley." "Understanding that you give me full credit," her associate told her, his lips close to her ear. "I ain't sure but what I'd better hide you till night," the landlord informed Lida. "As I said, they're naturally genteel, but----" He hesitated when he heard the growing grumble of voices. "I've got trouble enough in getting away without taking you on for an extra load," was Crowley's rough repudiation of Lida. "You have double-crossed----" "I'll accept your opinion as an expert in that line," she said, lashing her courage back to meet the situation. "I am not asking any favors from Vose-Mern or their operatives. Nor from you," she informed the landlord. She settled Ward's cap and jacket more securely in the clutch of her arms. "Unbar and open the door, if you please, Mr. Brophy." He demurred. "It's the door of a public inn. You must open it." He obeyed, standing ready to repel intruders. She walked straight out and through the crowd of hostile natives, who parted to allow her to pass; her chin was up and her eyes were level in meeting the gaze of any man who stared at her. She had made up her mind where she was going, and the thought of that intended destination put some of the spirit of old Echford Flagg in her. When she was free from the crowd she began to run; instinct of the homing sort impelled her to hasten. She had not settled in her mind what she would say or do when she got there, but there seemed to be no other place in all the world for her right then except the big house on the ledges. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Lida did not wait to be admitted to her grandfather's house in the conventional manner; she did not dare to test her new resolution by a pause on the steps, and she was afraid that Rickety Dick would enforce the Flagg injunction against a woman. Gasping for breath after her run across the ledges, she flung herself into the presence of her grandfather.