More than that, desperate and lawless as they were, they still retained the chivalry of Western men, and every hat was slowly doffed to the three black figures that stood silently in the gallery.

And even apologetic speech began to loosen the clenched teeth of the discomfited leader.
"We--were--told there was no one in the house," he stammered.
"And it was the truth," said a pert, youthful, yet slightly affected voice.

"For we climbed into the window just as you came in at the gate." It was Susy's words that stung their ears again; but it was Susy's pretty figure, suddenly advanced and in a slightly theatrical attitude, that checked their anger.

There had been a sudden ominous silence, as the whole plot of rescue seemed to be revealed to them in those audacious words.

But a sense of the ludicrous, which too often was the only perception that ever mitigated the passions of such assemblies, here suddenly asserted itself.