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The doctor disappeared within, and presently they could hear his

loud, cheerful voice pretending to berate the patient.

Arlie sat down on the top step of the porch.

"Boys, I don't know what I would have done if he had died. It

would have been all my fault. I had no business to tell him the

names of you boys that rode in the raid, and afterward to tell

you that I told him," she accused herself.

"No, you had no business to tell him, though it happens he's safe

as a bank vault," Howard commented.

"I don't know how I came to do it," the girl continued. "Jed had

made me suspicious of him, and then I found out something fine he

had done for me. I wanted him to know I trusted him. That was the

first thing I thought of, and I told it. He tried to stop me, but

I'm such an impulsive little fool."

"We all make breaks, Arlie. You'll not do it again, anyhow,"

France comforted.