a door wot isn't locked."

"I dunno. I dunno. This wan here----"

He seized the latch and shook the door, kicking it stoutly with his
heavy boots.

Inside, Wilson had risen to his feet, armed with a short piece of the
joist, his lips drawn back so tight as to reveal his teeth. Wilson had
never struck a man in his life before to-night, but he knew that if
that door gave he should batter until he couldn't stand. He would hit
hard--mercilessly. He gripped the length of wood as though it were a
two-handled scimitar, and waited.

"D' ye mind now that it's a bit loose?" said Murphy.

He put his knee against it and shoved, but the joist held firm. The
man didn't know that he was playing with the certainty of a crushed
skull.

"Aw, come on!" broke in the other, impatiently. "They'll git tired and
crawl out. We can wait for thim at th' ind. Faith, ut's bitter cowld
here."

The man and the girl heard their steps shuffle off, and even caught
the swash of their knees against the stiff rubber coats, so near they
passed. The girl, who had been staring with strained neck and
motionless eyes at the tall figure of the waiting man at her side,
drew a long breath and laid her hand upon his knee.

"They've gone," she said.

Still he did not move, but stood alert, suspicious, his long fingers
twined around his weapon, fearing with half-savage passion some new
ruse.

"Don't stand so," she pleaded. "They've gone."

The stick dropped from his hand, and he took off his hat to let the
rain beat upon his hot head.

She crowded closer to his side, shivering with the cold, and yet more
at peace than she had been that weary, long day. The world, which had
stretched to fearsome distances, shrank again to the compass of this
small yard, and a man stood between her and the gate to fight off the
forces which had surged in upon her. She was mindful of nothing else.
It was enough that she could stand for even a moment in the shelter of
his strength; relax senses which discovered danger only to shrink
back, powerless to ward it off. A woman without her man was as
helpless as a soldier without his arms.

The rain soaked through to her skin, and she was faint with hunger;
yet she was content to wait by his side in silence, in the full
confidence that he with his man strength would stride over the
seemingly impossible and provide. She was stripped to the naked woman
heart of her, forced back to the sheer clinging instinct. She was
simplifi