und it.

"Then came a flash from one of the upper windows, and I saw one of
them roll over. That was a satisfaction, for I knew they hadn't
caught my father asleep. I knew the doors and shutters were strong,
and that he could make a good fight of it. Still, there was only
him and my mother at home, for both the men had gone out before I
left in the morning; and one man hasn't much chance of holding a
house, attacked on all sides. So I made up my mind to try to dash
through them, when the shutter opened a little, and my father
shouted out:

"'Ride for help, Bill. I will keep them off, till you get back.'

"So I turned; but when I had gone a few yards I looked over my
shoulder, and I saw a man dash out from behind the house on
horseback, and start at a gallop after me. It was a bay with a
white leg, and I knew that Cockeye used to ride such a horse, and
that there wasn't a better in the colony. Almost at the same moment
I heard a shot again, but I didn't look round.

"I can tell you I felt pretty badly frightened, for there was no
mercy to be expected from that scoundrel, and I knew that he was a
good deal better mounted than I was. The next station was about
four miles off, and I had about two hundred yards start, but before
I had gone half a mile, he was within fifty yards of me. I could
hear him, cursing and swearing and shouting to me to stop, but I
had made up my mind I would not do that.

"I had got a brace of pistols with me, but I wasn't much of a shot.
I had, soon after I started, pulled them out of the holsters and
shoved them into my belt in front of me; so that, as he came up, he
shouldn't see my hand go down for them. My hope was that he would
ride straight up to the side of me, not knowing that I was armed;
and that would give me a chance of suddenly letting fly at him.

"You would think the chance was a poor one; and that he would, to a
certainty, shoot me down before he got up. I did not much think he
would do that, for I guessed that the scoundrel would do with me as
he had in some other cases; namely, take me and carry me back to
the house, and there either threaten to shoot me, or hang me up
over a fire, or some such devilry, to make those inside give in. I
was determined this shouldn't be, and that if I could not shoot him
I would be shot myself; for otherwise he would have got my father
and mother, and it would have been three lives instead of one.

"Presently--crack!--came the sound of a pis