on
going round I found that all the lower windows had been fitted with iron
shutters, and these, though rusty, were in perfectly good condition. In
this task of examination Miss Irma assisted me, and though I would not
let her put a finger to the sharp-edged flaky iron, it was a pleasure to
feel the touch of her skirt, while once she laid a hand on my arm to
guide me to a little dark closet the window of which was protected by a
hingeless plate of iron, held in position by a horizontal bar fitting
into the stonework on either side.

There was not so much to be done above stairs, where the shutters were
of fine solid oak and easily fitted. But I sought out an oriel window of
a tower which commanded the pillared doorway. For I did not forget what
I had seen when the Great House of Marnhoul was besieged by the rabble
of Eden Valley. It was there that the danger was if the house should be
attempted.

But I so arranged it, that whoever attacked the house, I should at least
get one fair chance at them with "King George," our very wide-scattering
blunderbuss.

In the little room in which this window was, we gathered. It made a kind
of watch-tower, for from it one could see both ways--down the avenue to
the main road, and across the policies towards the path that led up from
the Killantringan shore.

I felt that it was high time for me to know against what I was to fight.
Not that I was any way scared. I do not think I thought about that at
all, so pleased was I at being where I was, and specially anxious that
no one should come to help, so as to share with me any of the credit
that was my due from Miss Irma.

Agnes Anne, indeed, was afraid of what she was going to hear. For as yet
she had been told nothing definite. But then she was tenfold more afraid
of "King George"--mostly, I believe, because it had been made a kind of
fetish in our house, and the terrible things that would happen if we
meddled with it continually represented to us by our mother. Finally, we
arranged that "King George" should be set in the angle of the oriel
window, the muzzle pointing to the sky, and that in the pauses of the
tale, I should keep a look-out from the watch-tower.

"It is my brother Louis--Sir Louis Maitland--whom they are seeking!"

Miss Irma made this statement as if she had long faced it, and now found
nothing strange about the matter. But I think both Agnes Anne and I were
greatly astonished, though for different reasons. For my