e bed-clothes, and quaked. Emmie
sprang out of bed and huddled on her clothes, under the impression that
fire-engines were at work. The Reverend Theophilus leaped up, seized
the study poker and a lamp, and rushed towards the dining-room.
Overturning the draught-board, Simon grasped a rolling-pin, Robin the
tongs, and both made for the same place. They all collided at the door,
burst it open, and advanced to the scene of war.

It was a strange scene! Bill and the Crusader, still struggling, were
giving the remains of the other knight a lively time of it, and Dick,
just beginning to recover, was sitting with a dazed look in a sea of
iron debris.

"That's right; hit him hard, father!" cried Harry, trying to look round.

"No, don't, sir," cried the burglar; "I gives in."

"Let my son--let the Crusa--let _him_ go, then," said the Reverend
gentleman, raising his poker.

"I can't, sir, 'cause he won't let _me_ go."

"All right, I'll let you go now," said Harry, unclasping his arms and
rising with a long-drawn sigh. "Now you. Come to the light and let's
have a look at you."

So saying, the lad thrust his mailed hand into the burglar's
neckerchief, and assisted by the Reverend Theophilus, led his captive to
the light which had been put on the table. The gardener and Robin did
the same with Dick. For one moment it seemed as if the two men
meditated a rush for freedom, for they both glanced at the still open
window, but the stalwart Simon with the rolling-pin and the sturdy Robin
with the tongs stood between them and that mode of exit, while the
Crusader with his mace and huge Mr Stronghand with the study poker
stood on either side of them. They thought better of it. "Bring two
chairs here," said the clergyman, in a gentle yet decided tone.

Robin and Harry obeyed--the latter wondering what "the governor was
going to be up to."

"Sit down," said the clergyman, quietly and with much solemnity.

The burglars humbly obeyed.

"Now, my men, I am going to preach you a sermon."

"That's right, father," interrupted Harry, in gleeful surprise. "Give
it 'em hot. Don't spare them. Put plenty of brimstone into it."

But, to Harry's intense disgust, his father put no brimstone into it at
all. On the contrary, without availing himself of heads or
subdivisions, he pointed out in a few plain words the evil of their
course, and the only method of escaping from that evil. Then he told
them that penal servitude for man