o the passage, where there was
less risk of the light betraying us, in order to do so.

"Now," said Brown, "if we can but get that fellow once into the house,
we'll have him at all events. We had better all come down-stairs
quietly. If we can only persuade Mrs Nutt to come with us to speak to
him while we open the door, depend upon it we shall trap him; but
she's in a terrible way, poor soul! she wants me to let her call out
murder, and I am afraid now she'll spoil it all. But she has the
servant with her, who seems rather a plucky girl, and I hope she can
manage her. Now, come on quickly, Chesterton, and hide the light when
you get into the long passage, because there are no shutters to the
windows. The women will meet us at the bottom of the stairs."

My gun had been left in the kitchen; I seized the poker, and we all
proceeded cautiously along the passage, and down-stairs. Poor Mrs
Nutt, as pale as death, and scarcely able to stand, was waiting for
us, with the servant girl. But it was with the greatest difficulty we
could get her to listen to any such proposition as opening the door;
she was much more inclined to side with Chesterton, who wanted to
present the gun at the fellow from the window, and fire if he made any
attempt either to effect an entrance, or to run away.

At last, however, by the persuasion of the servant, who really was a
heroine in her way, we got her into the passage at the end of which
the door in question was situated; but as nothing could induce her to
speak to the fellow outside, beyond a very faint "Who's there?" the
girl took up the dialogue, and enquired the man's name.

"Tom Smith; I've got a note for the missus, and something to say to
her besides. Let's in--there's a good wench; I've been a-knocking here
this half hour already."

It had been agreed that I was to open the door, and shut and bolt it,
if possible, the instant the speaker had entered. Brown and Chesterton
stood just inside a small pantry, ready to secure their man as soon as
he was fairly inside, and the women were to make their escape out of
harm's way, as soon as their services as a decoy could be dispensed
with.

It was a moment of breathless expectation while I withdrew the bolts.
Hardly had I done so, when the door flew violently open, and with a
silent but determined rush three men entered. I shut the door
instinctively, but it was evident that our plan was defeated, and we
had now only to fight it out. There w