That was not his voice, that heavy growl, that animal note. Saul Chadron's; no other. Her mother came in through the front door, weeping, and clasped Frances in her arms as she stood there, shadowy in the light of the dim hall lamp. "He is gone!" she said. Frances did not speak. But for the first time in her life a feeling of bitterness against her father for his hardness of heart and unbending way of injustice lifted itself in her breast. She led her mother to her own room, giving her such comfort as she could put into words. "He said he never marched out to sure defeat before," Mrs. Landcraft told her. "I've seen him go many a time, Frances, but never with such a pain in my heart as tonight!" And Saul Chadron was the man who had caused his going, Frances knew, a new illumination having come over the situation since hearing his voice in the colonel's office a few minutes past. Chadron had been at Meander, telegraphing to the cattlemen's servants in Washington all the time. He had demanded the colonel's recall, and the substitution of Major King, because he wanted a man in authority at the post whom he could use. This favoritism of Chadron made her distrustful at once of Major King. There must be some scheming and plotting afoot. She went down and stood in the hall again, not even above bending to listen at the keyhole. Chadron was talking again. She felt that he must have been talking all the time that she had been away. It must be an unworthy cause that needed so much pleading, she thought. "Well, he'll not shoot, I tell you, King; he's too smart for that. He'll have to be trapped into it. If you've got to have an excuse to fire on them--and I can't see where it comes in, King, damn my neck if I can--we've got to set a trap." "Leave that to me," returned Major King, coldly. "How much force are you authorized to use?" "The order leaves that detail to me. 'Sufficient force to restore order,' it says." "I think you ort to take a troop, at the least, King, and a cannon--maybe two." "I don't think artillery will be necessary, sir." "Well, I'll leave it to you, King, but I'd hate like hell to take you up there and have that feller lick you. You don't know him like I do. I tell you he'd lay on his back and fight like a catamount as long as he had a breath left in him." "Can you locate them in the night?" "I think we'd have to wait up there somewheres for daybreak. I'm not just sure which cañon they are in." There was silence. Frances peeped through the keyhole, but could see nothing except thick smoke over bookcases and files. "Well, we'll not want to dislodge them before daylight, anyway," said King. "If Macdonald can back off without a fight, he'll do it," Chadron declared, "for he knows as well as you and I what it'd mean to fire on the troops. And I want you to git him, King, and make sure you've got him."