To them she had been more formidable than a schoolteacher.

Their throats had closed upon all utterance.

Now as she faced them, a dozen feet away, even though the words "Patricia Whipple" applied to but one of their number, the twins took the challenge to themselves and quailed.

They knew that deep and terrible voice menaced themselves as well as the late Ben Blunt--for that mere street urchin, blown upon by the winds of desolation, had shrivelled and passed.

In his place drooped a girl in absurd boy's clothes, her hair messily cut off, smoking something she plainly did not wish to smoke.