"After Lee again!" was Badger's conclusion. "I reckon I'd better camp on
his trail. He said he would kill Lee, and that must be what he is up
to!"
Thereupon, Badger also leaped the fence and slipped through the shadows
in the direction taken by the man he supposed to be Gaston.
"Eh! what does that mean?"
Badger stopped stock-still. He saw several men beneath a window, which
they had forced open. One man was being helped through.
"Can't be a band of assassins, I allow? More likely a lot of burglars
trying to crack the crib."
The Westerner was right in his guess. These were not friends of Bill
Gaston bent on assassination, but housebreakers, whose cupidity had been
aroused by the fact, which had chanced to come to their knowledge, that
a diamond brooch worth ten thousand dollars had recently been taken from
the Lee residence. A crib which held such valuables seemed to them a
good one to rip open, and they had obtained information that Fairfax Lee
was expected to be away from home that night. They had found that most
of the servants were out, too, and because of this it appeared safer to
make the raid at an early hour, before the servants returned.
Badger stood in indecision in the shadows, wondering what course he
ought to pursue. Before he could make up his mind, the first burglar had
disappeared, and a second was being helped through the window.
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