"you fired too high!"

A revolver crashed on the door-step, and low down within three feet of
the ground, I saw a dreadful face convulsed with rage, changing to fear.
The woman was sinking to her knees, she buried her face in grimy,
blood-smeared hands, and rocked to and fro in awful abandonment of
grief.

The danger was over now, the menace of evil in the night had vanished. I
felt an immense relief, with hands wet, mouth parched, knees shaking,
and great need of tears. I knew the strain had been beyond endurance,
but now it was gone, although a velvet darkness closing round me, black
night swinging round me, sickness--I must not faint, when I had to
fight, to keep command, to set an example worthy of Jesse's wife. And
there I was sitting in my chair, with drops of sweat forming and pouring
on my forehead. Billy, groping on the floor at my feet, had found and
lighted the candle, and was holding the flame in the palms of his hands
till it steadied and blazed up clear. "Buck up, missus," he was saying.
"Cheer-oh. Don't let 'em know you swooned, mum. Grab on to that cross,
and make it proud of you. That's right. Laugh, mum! Laugh! Wish'd I'd
half yer grit."

I had come to myself and only Billy knew, who was loyal. As the candle
blazed up I saw the Chinaman gibbering like some toothless mask of
yellow india-rubber, but that nurse still kept up her silly screaming,
until I ordered her to shut her mouth, which she did in sheer surprise.

There lay Polly prone across the doorway on her face, racked with
convulsive sobs, until feeling, I suppose, the lashing rain on her back,
she rose on hands and knees like some forlorn wild animal crawling to
shelter, while behind her stretched a trail of wet and blood. I stared
until in shame she sat up, still for all the world like an animal lost
to human feeling, and to a woman's dignity, until as she looked at me a
wan shamed smile seemed to apologize. She sat back then against the log
wall, limp, relaxed with weakness.

"Nurse," I called, still with my gaze on Polly, "this woman is wounded.
You are a nurse. You claimed to be a nurse."

But Miss Panton indulged in hysterics, so I turned to Billy. "Run into
the house, get the hip bath, warm water, blankets, bandages."

"Aye, aye, mum," he touched his forelock, and swinging the Chinaman to
his feet: "Come along, Sam," he grunted, and bustled him off on duty.

Polly looked up, trusting me with her tawny bloodshot eyes. Her voice
wa