In either case they could merely wait, and learn.

Some one swore without, and was sharply rebuked by another voice, which added an order gruffly.

Then the outer latch clicked, and a single man stepped within, immediately closing the door.
Keith could not see the girl through the small aperture, but he heard her quick exclamation, startled, yet full of relief.
"Oh, is it you?
I am so glad!" The man laughed lightly.
"It is nice to be welcomed, although, perhaps, after your time of loneliness any arrival would prove a relief.

Did you think I was never coming, Christie ?" "I could not understand," she replied, evidently with much less enthusiasm, and to Keith's thinking, a shade resentful of the familiarity, "but naturally supposed you must be unexpectedly delayed." "Well, I was," and he apparently flung both coat and hat on a bench, with the intention of remaining, "The marshal arrested a fellow for a murder committed out on the Santa Fe Trail, and required me as a witness.

But the man got away before we had any chance to try him, and I have been on his trail ever since." "A murder! Did you imagine he came this way ?" "Not very likely; fact of it is, the sand storm yesterday destroyed all traces, and, as a result, we've lost him.