unless absolutely driven to
do so in defence of her life. If the natives really do come on and get
up close to the house, I think that I ought to help to keep them out;
but it is a dreadful thing to have to shoot anyone--at least it seems so
to me."

"It is not a pleasant thing when considered in cold blood; but when men
go out of their way to take one's life, I do not feel the slightest
compunction myself in taking theirs. These natives have no cause of
complaint whatever against us. They have assembled and attacked the
settlement in a treacherous manner, and without the slightest warning of
their intentions. Their intention is to slay man, woman, and child
without mercy, and I therefore regard them as human tigers, and no more
deserving of pity. At the same time I can quite enter into your
feelings, and think you are perfectly right not to take any active part
in the affair unless we are pressed by the savages. Then, of course, you
would be not only justified, but it would, I think, be your absolute
duty to do your best to defend the place."

"Do you think that it is all over now, Mr. Atherton?" Mrs. Renshaw
asked. "We regard you as our commanding officer, for you are the only
one here who ever saw a shot fired in anger before our voyage out, and
your experience is invaluable to us now. Indeed, both my husband and
myself feel that it is to your suggestion that we should put up the
strong shutters and doors that we owe the lives of our children; for had
it not been for that, those men who came first might have taken the
house when they found them alone in it."

"I cannot accept your thanks for that, Mrs. Renshaw. It may be if this
goes on that the shutters will be found of the greatest use, and indeed
they have probably stopped a good many balls from coming in and so saved
some of our lives, but on the first occasion Wilfrid and your daughter
owed their lives to their being prepared and armed, while the natives
relying upon surprising them had left their guns in the wood. The
shutters were not closed until after they made off, and had they not
been there those four natives could never have passed across the
clearing and reached the house under the fire of two cool and steady
marksmen.

"As to your first question, whether it is all over, it depends entirely
upon whether the party who attacked us are the main force of the
natives. If so, I do not think they will renew the attack at present.
They have suffered terri