, "or I'll--" But at that moment Paul rushed past
him, sprang on the bed, and placed his own body in front of his sister's.
"No, you don't," he half sobbed, half screamed, "you--you coward, you'll
hit me first!"

It is doubtful if the man would have fired at little Stella; probably he
meant only to frighten the children, but at that instant he heard the
sound of footsteps on the stairs, and with a frenzied look around him for
a means of escape, he saw the doorway filled by the burly form of Farmer
Minards.

Now Farmer Minards was not accustomed to the capturing of desperate men.
A better man with a kicking horse, or a savage bull, could not perhaps, be
found on Dartmoor, and if the convict had stood and allowed himself to be
pinioned with only a moderate amount of struggling and kicking, the
farmer's presence of mind would have been sufficient, but, as it was, when
the man made one bold rush, with pistol cocked, for the very spot where he
stood, he gave way before the rush; but for an instant there was a
struggle and a fight, for Muggridge and the man who slept at the farm were
close behind the farmer, little expecting their master to give way so
soon, and leave them to grapple with their visitor, and it may have been
that he intended to shoot down one of them, or that in the struggle the
pistol accidentally went off, but in another second a bullet whistled
through the air, and, passing clean through the fleshy part of Paul's arm,
became embedded in the wall behind.

Certain it is that if Paul had not dragged his sister flat down behind him
on the bed poor Stella's life would have been ended then and there.
But Paul had expiated his sin nobly, and he had nearly laid down his life
for hers. Stella really thought he had laid it down in very truth when he
fell forward on his face with blood pouring from him, and, overcome with
grief and horror, she fainted dead away beside him.

Farmer Minards saw the children fall, and he, too, thought Paul was
killed. In fact, for the moment he thought they both were, and with the
horror of it, forgetting the convict and everything else, he rushed to the
bedside, leaving Muggridge and Davey to manage as best they could.
But the convict had the best of it, and the two had never a chance to
close with him. By the force and unexpectedness with which he came he
burst through them, and dealing Davey a blow on the head with his pistol,
and Muggridge one in the face with his fist, which