She ran to the first step, and standing there, faced the men, one hand extended with perpendicular palm, and the other holding the pistol at her side. "Oh, please, don't go up there! Nobody is there--indeed, there is not! P-l-e-a-s-e!" Then suddenly she sank swiftly down upon the step, and, huddling forlornly, began to weep in the agony and with the convulsive tremors of an infant. The pistol fell from her fingers and rattled down to the floor. The astonished troopers looked at their astonished captain. There was a short silence. Finally, the captain stooped and picked up the pistol. It was a heavy weapon of the army pattern. He ascertained that it was empty. He leaned toward the shaking girl, and said gently, "Will you tell me what you were going to do with this pistol?" He had to repeat the question a number of times, but at last a muffled voice said, "Nothing." "Nothing!" He insisted quietly upon a further answer. At the tender tones of the captain's voice, the phlegmatic corporal turned and winked gravely at the man next to him. "Won't you tell me?" The girl shook her head. "Please tell me!" The silent privates were moving their feet uneasily and wondering how long they were to wait. The captain said, "Please won't you tell me?" Then this girl's voice began in stricken tones half coherent, and amid violent sobbing: "It was grandpa's. He--he--he said he was going to shoot anybody who came in here--he didn't care if there were thousands of 'em. And--and I know he would, and I was afraid they'd kill him. And so--and--so I stole away his pistol--and I was going to hide it when you--you--you kicked open the door." The men straightened up and looked at each other. The girl began to weep again. The captain mopped his brow. He peered down at the girl. He mopped his brow again. Suddenly he said, "Ah, don't cry like that." He moved restlessly and looked down at his boots. He mopped his brow again. Then he gripped the corporal by the arm and dragged him some yards back from the others. "Jones," he said, in an intensely earnest voice, "will you tell me what in the devil I am going to do?" The corporal's countenance became illuminated with satisfaction at being thus requested to advise his superior officer. He adopted an air of great thought, and finally said: "Well, of course, the feller with the gray sleeve must be upstairs, and we must get past the girl and up there somehow. Suppose I take her by the arm and lead her----" "What!" interrupted the captain from between his clinched teeth. As he turned away from the corporal, he said fiercely over his shoulder, "You touch that girl and I'll split your skull!" III.