Dick stepped out to meet them and answer their questions.
"Mr.Armitage is here.

He has been hurt and we have sent for a doctor; but"-- and he looked at Shirley.
"If you will do me the honor to enter--all of you!" and Armitage came out quickly and smiled upon them.
"We had started off to look for Dick when we met your man," said Shirley, standing on the steps, rein in hand.
"What has happened, and how was Armitage injured ?" demanded Judge Claiborne.
"There was a battle," replied Dick, grinning, "and Mr.Armitage got in the way of a bullet." Her ride through the keen morning air had flooded Shirley's cheeks with color.

She wore a dark blue skirt and a mackintosh with the collar turned up about her neck, and a red scarf at her throat matched the band of her soft felt hat.

She drew off her gauntlets and felt in her pocket for a handkerchief with which to brush some splashes of mud that had dried on her cheek, and the action was so feminine, and marked so abrupt a transition from the strange business of the night and morning, that Armitage and Dick laughed and Judge Claiborne turned upon them frowningly.
Shirley had been awake much of the night.

On returning from the ball at the inn she found Dick still absent, and when at six o'clock he had not returned she called her father and they had set off together for the hills, toward which, the stablemen reported, Dick had ridden.