in!" gasped Oonah; and in a
whisper, scarcely above her breath, she added, "Aunt--there's some one
under the bed!"

The aunt did not answer; but the two women drew closer together and
held each other in their arms, as if their proximity afforded
protection. Thus they lay in breathless fear for some minutes, while
Andy began to be influenced by a vision, in which the duel, and the
chase, and the thrashing were all enacted over again, and soon an odd
word began to escape from the dream. "Gi' me the pist'l, Dick--the
pist'l!"

"There are two of them!" whispered Oonah. "God be merciful to us! Do
you hear him asking for the pistol?"

"Screech!" said her aunt.

"I can't," said Oonah.

Andy was quiet for some time, while the women scarcely breathed.

"Suppose we get up, and make for the door?" said the aunt.

"I wouldn't put my foot out of the bed for the world," said Oonah. "I'm
afeard one o' them will catch me by the leg."

"Howld him! howld him!" grumbled Andy.

"I'll die with the fright, aunt! I feel I'm dyin'! Let us say our
prayers, aunt, for we're goin' to be murdhered!" The two women began to
repeat with fervour their _aves_ and _paternosters_, while at this
immediate juncture, Andy's dream having borne him to the dirty ditch
where Dick Dawson had pommelled him, he began to vociferate, "Murder,
murder!" so fiercely, that the women screamed together in an agony of
terror, and "Murder! murder!" was shouted by the whole party; for, once
the widow and Oonah found their voices, they made good use of them. The
noise awoke Andy, who had, be it remembered, a tolerably long sleep by
this time: and he having quite forgotten where he had lain down, and
finding himself confined by the bed above him, and smothering for want
of air, with the fierce shouts of murder ringing in his ear, woke in as
great a fright as the women in the bed, and became a party in the
terror he himself had produced; every plunge he gave under the bed
inflicted a poke or a kick on his mother and cousin, which was answered
by the cry of "Murder!"

"Let me out--let me out, Misther Dick!" roared Andy. "Where am I at
all? Let me out!"

"Help! help! murdher!" roared the women.

"I'll never shoot any one again, Misther Dick--let me up!"

Andy scrambled from under the bed, half awake, and whole frightened by
the darkness and the noise, which was now increased by the barking of
the cur-dog.

"Hie at him, Coaly!" roared Mrs. Rooney; "howld him! how