Two of
the burglars--there were four or five of them, as Badger could see--were
to wait outside, while their pals on the inside made their search for
valuables.
Suddenly there came a cry for help from within the house, followed by
the sounds of a struggle. Fairfax Lee, unable to sleep and wandering as
restlessly about within the house as the Westerner had upon the outside,
had come unexpectedly upon the first burglar at the upper landing of the
rear stairway. The burglar looked so marvelously like the crazy
office-hunter, Bill Gaston, that Lee believed him to be Gaston, and that
Gaston had invaded the house for purposes of assassination.
Though Lee had dreaded a meeting with Gaston, and would have gone far
out of his way to avoid anything of the kind, he was by no means a
coward. He expected a shot from Gaston's pistol, and to prevent this, he
hurled himself on the burglar with a suddenness and boldness that took
the latter by surprise.
The cry for help did not come from the lips of Fairfax Lee, but from
those of the burglar. Badger, however, fancied that the call had come
from Lee. Without waiting to consider the danger, or to ask himself how
he was to account for his presence in the grounds and in the house, Buck
Badger ran toward the open window.
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