barrel
beside me."

And Ned held the pistol over the open barrel.

A dead silence of astonishment and terror had fallen upon the crowd. The
light was sufficient for them to see Ned's pale but determined face, and
as his words came out cold and steady there was not one who doubted that
he was in earnest, and that he was prepared to blow himself and them
into the air if necessary.

A cry of terror burst from them as he lowered the pistol to the barrel
of powder. Then in wild dismay every man threw down his arms and fled,
jostling each other fiercely to make their escape through the doorway
from the fate which threatened them. In a few seconds the place was
cleared and the assailants in full flight across the country. Ned
laughed contemptuously. Then with some difficulty he lifted the broken
door into its place, put some props behind it, fetched a couple of
blankets from his bed, and lay down near the powder, and there slept
quietly till morning.

Luke and Bill Swinton were down at the factory an hour before the usual
time. The assailants had for the most part come over from Huddersfield,
but many of the men from Varley had been among them. The terror which
Ned's attitude had inspired had been so great that the secret was less
well kept than usual, and as soon as people were astir the events of the
night were known to most in the village. The moment the news reached the
ears of Luke and Bill they hurried down to the mill without going in as
usual for their mug of beer and bit of bread and cheese at the "Brown
Cow." The sight of the shattered door at once told them that the rumors
they had heard were well founded. They knocked loudly upon it.

"Hullo!" Ned shouted, rousing himself from his slumbers; "who is there?
What are you kicking up all this row about?"

"It's oi, Maister Ned, oi and Bill, and glad oi am to hear your voice.
It's true, then, they haven't hurt thee?"

"Not a bit of it," Ned said as he moved the supports of the door. "I
think they got the worst of it."

"If so be as what oi ha' heard be true you may well say that, Maister
Ned. Oi hear as you ha' gived 'em such a fright as they won't get
over in a hurry. They say as you was a-sitting on the top of a heap of
gunpowder up to the roof with a pistol in each hand."

"Not quite so terrible as that, Luke; but the effect would have been the
same. Those twelve barrels of powder you see there would have blown the
mill and all in it into atoms."

"Lord,