ll be able to laugh at
men on foot if they are so foolish as to follow us. Come now, Betty,
stir your stumps and finish your packing. I'll go get the--"

A peculiar yell rent the air outside at that moment, cutting short the
sentence, and almost petrifying the speaker, who sprang up and began
frantically to bar the door and windows of the hut, at the same time
growling, "They've come sooner than I expected. Who'd have thought it!
Bar the small window at the back, Betty, an' then fetch all the weapons.
I was so taken up wi' you, Fred, that I forgot to haul back the plank;
that's how they've got over. Help wi' this table--so--they'll have some
trouble to batter in the door wi' that agin it, an' I've a flankin'
battery at the east corner to prevent them settin' the place on fire."

While the man spoke he acted with violent haste. Fred sprang up and
assisted him, for the shock--coupled, no doubt, with the hot coffee and
bread and cheese--had restored his energies, at least for the time,
almost as effectually as if he had had a rest.

They were only just in time, for at that moment a man ran with a wild
shout against the door. Finding it fast, he kept thundering against it
with his heavy boots, and shouting Paul Bevan's name in unusually fierce
tones.

"Are ye there?" he demanded at last and stopped to listen.

"If you'll make less noise mayhap ye'll find out" growled Paul.

"Och! Paul, dear, open av ye love me," entreated the visitor, in a
voice there was no mistaking.

"I do believe it's my mate Flinders!" said Fred.

Paul said nothing, but proved himself to be of the same opinion by
hastily unbarring and opening the door, when in burst the irrepressible
Flinders, wet from head to foot, splashed all over with mud and blood,
and panting like a race-horse.

"Is that--tay ye've got there--my dear?" he asked in gasps.

"No, it is coffee. Let me give you some."

"Thank 'ee kindly--fill it up--my dear. Here's wishin'--ye all luck!"

Paddy drained the cup to the dregs, wiped his mouth on the cuff of his
coat, and thus delivered himself--

"Now, don't all spake at wance. Howld yer tongues an' listen. Av
coorse, Muster Fred's towld ye when an' where an' how I jined the
blackguards. Ye'll be able now to guess why I did it. Soon after I
jined 'em I began to boast o' my shootin' in a way that would ha'
shocked me nat'ral modesty av I hadn't done it for a raisin o' me own.
Well, they boasted back, so I defie