ive or six fine
young Doones came dancing a reel (as their manner was) betwixt her and
the flaming rick. Upon which she pulled the trigger with all the force
of her thumb, and a quarter of a pound of duck-shot went out with a
blaze on the dancers. You may suppose what their dancing was, and their
reeling how changed to staggering, and their music none of the sweetest.
One of them fell into the rick, and was burned, and buried in a ditch
next day; but the others were set upon their horses, and carried home
on a path of blood. And strange to say, they never avenged this very
dreadful injury; but having heard that a woman had fired this desperate
shot among them, they said that she ought to be a Doone, and inquired
how old she was.

Now I had not been so very long waiting in our mow-yard, with my best
gun ready, and a big club by me, before a heaviness of sleep began to
creep upon me. The flow of water was in my ears, and in my eyes a hazy
spreading, and upon my brain a closure, as a cobbler sews a vamp up. So
I leaned back in the clover-rick, and the dust of the seed and the smell
came round me, without any trouble; and I dozed about Lorna, just once
or twice, and what she had said about new-mown hay; and then back went
my head, and my chin went up; and if ever a man was blest with slumber,
down it came upon me, and away went I into it.

Now this was very vile of me, and against all good resolutions, even
such as I would have sworn to an hour ago or less. But if you had been
in the water as I had, ay, and had long fight with it, after a good
day's work, and then great anxiety afterwards, and brain-work (which is
not fair for me), and upon that a stout supper, mayhap you would not be
so hard on my sleep; though you felt it your duty to wake me.

CHAPTER XLIX

MAIDEN SENTINELS ARE BEST

It was not likely that the outlaws would attack out premises until some
time after the moon was risen; because it would be too dangerous to
cross the flooded valleys in the darkness of the night. And but for this
consideration, I must have striven harder against the stealthy
approach of slumber. But even so, it was very foolish to abandon watch,
especially in such as I, who sleep like any dormouse. Moreover, I had
chosen the very worst place in the world for such employment, with a
goodly chance of awakening in a bed of solid fire.

And so it might have been, nay, it must have been, but for Lorna's
vigilance. Her light hand upon m