red to pieces and the iron plates driven from their bolts by the
tremendous blows of the hammer, but the stout bar still stood. Through
the yawning holes in the upper part of the door the hammermen could be
seen at work without.

Five guns flashed out, and yells and heavy falls told that the discharge
had taken serious effect. The hammering ceased, for the men could not
face the fire. Leaving Ned and one of the soldiers there, Mr. Cartwright
hurried round to the other doors, but the assault had been less
determined there and they still resisted; then he went upstairs and
renewed the firing from the upper windows. The fight had now continued
for twenty minutes, and the fire of the Luddites was slackening; their
supply of powder and ball was running short. The determined resistance,
when they had hoped to have effected an easy entrance by surprise, had
discouraged them; several had fallen and more were wounded, and at any
time the soldiers might be upon them.

Those who had been forced by fear to join the association--and these
formed no small part of the whole--had long since begun to slink away
quietly in the darkness, and the others now began to follow them. The
groans and cries of the wounded men added to their discomfiture, and
many eagerly seized the excuse of carrying these away to withdraw from
the fight.

Gradually the firing ceased, and a shout of triumph rose from the little
party in the mill at the failure of the attack. The defenders gathered
in the lower floor.

"I think they are all gone now," Ned said. "Shall we go out, Mr.
Cartwright, and see what we can do for the wounded? There are several
of them lying round the door and near the windows. I can hear them
groaning."

"No, Ned," Mr. Cartwright said firmly, "they must wait a little longer.
The others may still be hiding close ready to make a rush if we come
out; besides, it would likely enough be said of us that we went out and
killed the wounded; we must wait awhile."

Presently a voice was heard shouting without: "Are you all right,
Cartwright?"

"Yes," the manufacturer replied. "Who are you?"

The questioner proved to be a friend who lived the other side of
Liversedge, and who had been aroused by the ringing of the alarm bell.
He had not ventured to approach until the firing had ceased, and had
then come on to see the issue.

Hearing that the rioters had all departed, Mr. Cartwright ordered the
door to be opened. The wounded Luddites were l