anly crew he
had never dreamed of. They meant the uttermost business, and against
such it was surely the duty of good citizens to wage whole-hearted war.

The Princess was humming to herself a nursery rhyme. "THE KING OF
SPAIN'S DAUGHTER," she crooned, "CAME TO VISIT ME, AND ALL FOR THE
SAKE----Oh, that poor piano!" In her clear voice she cried something
in Russian, and the wind carried a laugh from the verandah. At the
sound of it she stopped. "I had forgotten," she said. "Paul is there.
I had forgotten." After that she was very quiet, but she redoubled her
labours at the barricade.

To the man it seemed that the pressure from without was slackening. He
called to McGuffog to ask about the garden-room window, and the reply
was reassuring. The gamekeeper was gloomily contemplating Dougal's
tubs of water and wire-netting, as he might have contemplated a vermin
trap.

Sir Archie was growing acutely anxious--the anxiety of the defender of
a straggling fortress which is vulnerable at a dozen points. It seemed
to him that strange noises were coming from the rooms beyond the hall.
Did the back door lie that way? And was not there a smell of smoke in
the air? If they tried fire in such a gale the place would burn like
matchwood.

He left his post and in the hall found Dougal.

"All quiet," the Chieftain reported. "Far ower quiet. I don't like
it. The enemy's no' puttin' out his strength yet. The Russian says a'
the west windies are terrible dangerous. Him and the chauffeur's doin'
their best, but ye can't block thae muckle glass panes."

He returned to the Princess, and found that the attack had indeed
languished on that particular barricade. The withers of the grand
piano were left unwrung, and only a faint scuffling informed him that
the verandah was not empty. "They're gathering for an attack
elsewhere," he told himself. But what if that attack were a feint? He
and McGuffog must stick to their post, for in his belief the verandah
door and the garden-room window were the easiest places where an entry
in mass could be forced. Suddenly Dougal's whistle blew, and with it
came a most almighty crash somewhere towards the west side. With a
shout of "Hold Tight, McGuffog," Sir Archie bolted into the hall, and,
led by the sound, reached what had once been the ladies' bedroom. A
strange sight met his eyes, for the whole framework of one window
seemed to have been thrust inward, and in the gap Alexis was swinging