ze when I was
roused in an instant by a dreadful crash and a piercing scream from Mrs.
Rusk. Scream followed scream, wilder and more terror-stricken. I shrieked
to Mary Quince, who was sleeping in the room with me:--'Mary, do you hear?
what is it? It is something dreadful.'

The crash was so tremendous that the solid flooring even of my room
trembled under it, and to me it seemed as if some heavy man had burst
through the top of the window, and shook the whole house with his descent.
I found myself standing at my own door, crying, 'Help, help! murder!
murder!' and Mary Quince, frightened half out of her wits, by my side.

I could not think what was going on. It was plainly something most
horrible, for Mrs. Rusk's screams pealed one after the other unabated,
though with a muffled sound, as if the door was shut upon her; and by this
time the bells of my father's room were ringing madly.

'They are trying to murder him!' I cried, and I ran along the gallery to
his door, followed by Mary Quince, whose white face I shall never forget,
though her entreaties only sounded like unmeaning noises in my ears.

'Here! help, help, help!' I cried, trying to force open the door.

'Shove it, shove it, for God's sake! he's across it,' cried Mrs. Rusk's
voice from within; 'drive it in. I can't move him.'

I strained all I could at the door, but ineffectually. We heard steps
approaching. The men were running to the spot, and shouting as they did
so--

'Never mind; hold on a bit; here we are; all right;' and the like.

We drew back, as they came up. We were in no condition to be seen. We
listened, however, at my open door.

Then came the straining and bumping at the door. Mrs. Rusk's voice subsided
to a sort of wailing; the men were talking all together, and I suppose the
door opened, for I heard some of the voices, on a sudden, as if in the
room; and then came a strange lull, and talking in very low tones, and not
much even of that.

'What is it, Mary? what _can_ it be?' I ejaculated, not knowing what horror
to suppose. And now, with a counterpane about my shoulders, I called loudly
and imploringly, in my horror, to know what had happened.

But I heard only the subdued and eager talk of men engaged in some
absorbing task, and the dull sounds of some heavy body being moved.

Mrs. Rusk came towards us looking half wild, and pale as a spectre, and
putting her thin hands to my shoulders, she said--'Now, Miss Maud, darling,
you mus