Part 2 What Occurred in Glencaid Chapter 14 Plucked from the Burning

"Yes, but who is it?"

"Bob Hampton, and--and he never did it at all."

Before Brant could either move or speak, Naida swept past him, down the
steep bank, and her voice rang out clear, insistent. "Bob Hampton
attacked by a mob? Is that true, Phoebe? They are fighting at the
Shasta dump, you say? Lieutenant Brant, you must act--you must act
now, for my sake!"

She sprang toward the horse, nerved by Brant's apparent slowness to
respond, and loosened the rein from the scrub oak. "Then I will myself
go to him, even if they kill me also, the cowards!"

But Brant had got his head now. Grasping her arm and the rein of the
plunging horse, "You will go home," he commanded, with the tone of
military authority. "Go home with Miss Spencer. All that can possibly
be done to aid Hampton I shall do--will you go?"

She looked helplessly into his face. "You--you don't like him," she
faltered; "I know you don't. But--but you will help him, won't you,
for my sake?"

He crushed back an oath. "Like him or not like him, I will save him if
it be in the power of man. Now will you go?"

"Yes," she answered, and suddenly extended her arms. "Kiss me first."

With the magical pressure of her lips upon his, he swung into the
saddle and spurred down the road. It was a principle of his military
training never to temporize with a mob--he would strike hard, but he
must have sufficient force behind him. He reined up before the
seemingly deserted camp, his horse flung back upon its haunches, white
foam necking its quivering flanks.