ound, in the
act of killing him, her champion against the world.

He groped for the door, unlocked it, and passed out.

In the kitchen he spoke to Jane the cook, who ran and escorted Mrs.
Stephen, not without difficulty, up to her own room.

Roger remained as she left him, staring into the fire.

XV.

He served the supper himself, explaining Jane's absence by a lie.
Towards midnight the volunteers began to arrive, dropping in by ones and
twos; and by four in the morning, when Roger withdrew to his attic to
snatch a few hours' sleep, the garrison seemed likely to resume its old
strength. The news of the widow's capture exhilarated them all.
Even those who had come dejectedly felt that they now possessed a hostage
to play off, as a last card, against the law.

That night Roger Stephen, in his attic, slept as he had not slept for
months, and awoke in the grey dawn to find Trevarthen shaking him by the
shoulder.

"Hist, man! Come and look," said Trevarthen, and led him to the window.
Roger rubbed his eyes, and at first could see nothing. A white sea-fog
covered the land and made the view a blank; but by-and-by, as he stared,
the fog thinned a little, and disclosed, two fields away, a row of blurred
white tents, and another row behind it.

"How many do you reckon?" he asked quietly.

"Soldiers? I put 'em down at a hundred and fifty."

"And we've a bare forty."

"Fifty-two. A dozen came in from Breage soon after five. They're all
posted."

"A nuisance, this fog," said Roger, peering into it. Since the first
assault he and his men had levelled the hedge across the road, so that the
approach from the fields lay open, and could be swept from the loopholes
in the courtlage wall.

"I don't say that," answered Trevarthen cheerfully. "We may find it help
us before the day is out. Anyway, there's no chance of its lifting if
this wind holds."

"I wonder, now, the fellow didn't try a surprise and attack at once."

"He'll summon you in form, depend on't. Besides, he has to go gently.
He knows by this time you hold the woman here, and he don't want her
harmed if he can avoid it."

"Ah!" said Roger. "To be sure--I forgot the woman."

While the two men stood meditating a moan sounded in the room below.
It seemed to rise through the planking close by their feet.

Trevarthen caught Roger by the arm. "What's that? You haven't been
hurting her? You promised--"

"No," Roger interrupted, "I haven't hu