"I'd make them sing another tune." Nearer and nearer they came, and now the Texan extinguished every light but one, which he shaded with his hat.

Then he looked to the front door and windows and saw that they were all barred, except a single shutter which he left so he could open it.
A minute later, and the tramp of a hundred hurrying feet came loudly on his ear.

Then shouts: "Clean her out.

Kill her and burn her crib!" In a minute the crowd brought up before the closed doors.
"Open your doors, woman, or we'll shatter them!" cried Wild Bill.
"Open, or down goes everything!" shouted the crowd.
"Here, Bill; here is a shutter loose!" cried one.
Wild Bill sprang toward it, and as he did so the shutter flew open; he saw a white face surrounded by auburn hair; he heard one gasping cry--"sister"-- and he fell back in terror, crying out: "The ghost! the ghost!" But some one fired a shot, the light went out, and all was dark where the light had been.
Bill recovered from his shock almost as soon as he felt it, and joined with the shout: "Down with the doors! Down with the doors." The crash that followed, told that the frail obstacles had given way, and Bill cried out: "In and clean the crib out.

Ghost or no ghost, give us light, and clean the crib out!" Cheer after cheer told that the house was entered, and a minute later, torches made from splintered doors and shutters, blazed in a dozen hands as the ruffians ran to and for in search of plunder.
"The ghost.