nto the stable, and was unsaddling her there.

"Come here," he called, "and put up your own beast."

I guessed pretty well what he meant by that. The stable was a small
one, with only one little grated window high up, and a thick door.
Could he lock me in there, I should be quiet enough for the rest of the
evening.

Happily for me Martin was a dull fool as well as a great villain, and he
betrayed his purpose by the glitter of his eye too clearly for any one
to mistake him. I strolled carelessly up towards the door, and as I did
so he left the horse and came to meet me.

"Come in here," said he, "and let's see how you can rub down a horse."

"I don't need you to show me," said I. "Look at her there, with her
mane all in a twist and her fetlock grazed by your clumsy pail."

He turned round to look, and in that moment I had the door shut on him
and the key turned on the outside. I knew that the door, which was
thick enough to stand a horse's kick, had nothing to fear from his. And
as to his noise, there would be no one to heed that. He would be safe
there till morning, and there were oats enough in the place to keep him
and Juno both from starving.

This business done, I hastened back to the house, and sought Miss Kit,
to whom I told everything.

"Father will not be home to-night," said she bravely. "We must do the
best we can, Barry."

"We'll do better than that, plaze God," said I.

Then followed an anxious council of war. Besides our two selves, there
were my lady and three maid-servants in the house. Mistress Gorman was
too nervous and delicate to count upon for help, but the maids were all
three sturdy wenches. So our garrison was five souls, and, counting the
two guns I had brought, there were eight stands of arms and ammunition
to match in the house.

The danger to be feared was not so much from the invaders' shooting as
from the possibility of their carrying out their threat to fire the
house. Our only hope seemed to lie in frightening them off at the onset
by as formidable a show of resistance as possible. Failing that, we
should have to protect ourselves as best we could.

Fortunately we could at least prevent their surrounding the house; for
by closing and barricading the garden doors on either side, all approach
would be limited to the water-front, unless a very wide circuit was made
outside the grounds. The drawing-room in which the family usually spent
their evenings was on the firs