in a moment all lesser sounds were drowned in a roar loud
as of a piece of ordnance.

The blunderbuss had been trained on the opening with some care, and it
was lucky for the men that they happened to be in retreat, and so
presenting their backs at the time--lucky, also, that only buckshot had
been used instead of the bullets and slugs with which the other guns
were loaded. But even so it was enough. She was always careless and
scattery, our old "King George." And from the marks on the lintels
afterwards she had sprinkled her charge pretty freely. Also there were
tokens, besides the yells and imprecations of the assailants and the
threats of Galligaskins to come back and do for us, that both of them
(as Constable Jacky would have said) "carried off concealed about their
persons an indictable quantity of my father's good lead drops."

So far, good. Better than good, indeed--better than we had the least
reason to expect, all owing to my presence of mind, and the fortunate
nervousness of Agnes Anne--which, however, in the case under review,
Providence directed to a wise and good end. I was for running
immediately back up the stairs to put the mind of Miss Irma at rest, but
Agnes Anne, with that stubbornness which she will often manifest
throughout this history, withstood me.

"What is it now?" I asked her, somewhat impatiently, I am bound to
admit. For I was all in a sweat to tell Irma about my victory, and how I
fought--and also, of course, about Agnes Anne pulling the trigger of
"King George" at random in the dark.

"This is the matter," said she, "Irma can wait. But if we do not improve
our victory, they will be back again with a whole army of men before we
can wink."

"Well," I answered, "I will load the guns first and then go up!"

"Loading the guns is good," said Agnes Anne. "But before that we must
blind up this hole by which they climbed in. We will give them something
more difficult to break through in this narrow passage than a stone door
which they can make holes in with a crowbar!"

And I caught at the idea in a moment, wondering how I had not thought of
it myself. But of course, though I did not actually suggest it, Agnes
Anne could never have carried it through without me.

We set about the work immediately. I took the big stone they had
loosened with their tools and tumbled it down the well of the stairway,
where, after rebounding once, it stuck at the turn and made a good
foundation for the barrel