than Dick himself.

Then there came another minute of respite. I suspected they had gone to
get bigger stones, and I dreaded the giving way of the whole door.

Running into the bedroom as this fear beset me, I laid hold of my chest
of drawers, dragged it into the passage, and threw it down against the
door. On the top of that I heaped my father's big tool chest, three
chairs, and a scuttleful of coals; and last, I dragged out the kitchen
table and rammed it as hard as I could against the whole barricade. They
heard me as they were coming up to the door with fresh stones. Jerry
said: "Stop a bit!" and t hen the two consulted together in whispers. I
listened eagerly, and just caught these words:

"Let's try it the other way."

Nothing more was said, but I heard their footsteps retreating from the
door.

Were they going to besiege the back door now?

I had hardly asked myself that question when I heard their voices at the
other side of the house. The back door was smaller than the front, but
it had this advantage in the way of strength--it was made of two solid
oak boards joined lengthwise, and strengthened inside by heavy cross
pieces. It had no bolts like the front door, but was fastened by a bar
of iron running across it in a slanting direction, and fitting at either
end into the wall.

"They must have the whole cottage down before they can break in at
that door!" I thought to myself. And they soon found out as much for
themselves. After five minutes of banging at the back door they gave up
any further attack in that direction and cast their heavy stones down
with curses of fury awful to hear.

I went into the kitchen and dropped on the window-seat to rest for a
moment. Suspense and excitement together were beginning to tell upon me.
The perspiration broke out thick on my forehead, and I began to feel the
bruises I had inflicted on my hands in making the barricade against
the front door. I had not lost a particle of my resolution, but I was
beginning to lose strength. There was a bottle of rum in the cupboard,
which my brother the sailor had left with us the last time he was
ashore. I drank a drop of it. Never before or since have I put anything
down my throat that did me half so much good as that precious mouthful
of rum!

I was still sitting in the window-seat drying my face, when I suddenly
heard their voices close behind me.

They were feeling the outside of the window against which I was sitting.
It wa