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“Sartin as stalks,” whispered the old servant. “She was all of a thrimble, as if she’d met a sperrit an’ all the words she had was ‘I seen it–I seen it all,’ an’ she yowlin’ like a banshee.”

“It’s quare we didn’t take notice to her, for she must ha’ been powerful close to see us such a night. I thought I heerd the horn, too, an’ I lavin’ the yard.”

She wint out to blow it,” whispered Peter. “Most like it was stuck in the shrubbery she was.”

“Come on thin,” growled the other; “it’s got to be done, an’ the byes is all here. Ye left the little dure beyant on the latch?”

“I did that,” responded old Peter; and then a low, soft whistle sounded in the darkness. It was a signal.

Rapidly but cautiously Harold Hayes left the window and stole across the room. He understood it all. Polly had seen the murder and had recognised the assassins. Old Dwyer was a traitor. He had slipped out and warned the ruffians of the peril in which they stood, and now they were here to seal their own safety by another crime –by the sacrifice of a life far dearer to Harold than his own.

Swiftly, silently, he sped down the gloomy passage. The lives of all beneath that roof were hanging on his speed. Breathless he reached the little door, and flung himself against it with all his weight while his trembling fingers groped in the darkness for bolt or bar.

A heavy hand was laid on the latch, and the door was tried from without.

“How’s this, Peter?” inquired the rough voice. “I thought ye said it wasn’t locked.”

“No more it is; it’s only stiff it is, bad cess to it. Push hard, yer sowl ye.”

But at this moment Harold’s hand encountered the bolt. With a sigh of relief he shot it into the socket, and then, searching farther, he supplemented the defences with a massive bar, which, he knew, ought always to be in place at night.

Then he sped back along the passage, while muttered curses reached his ears from without, and the door was shaken furiously.

“Jack, Jack,” he panted, as he flung open the door of the room in which the young men slept–“Jack, come down and–“

He stopped abruptly. Mr. Connolly was kneeling at the bedside, and his two sons knelt to the right and left of him.

There were no family prayers at Lisnahoe; only the ladies were regular church-goers; but that it was a religious household no one could have doubted who knew the events of the night and saw the old man on his knees between his boys.

They rose at the noise of Harold’s entrance, and the American, who felt that there were no moments to be wasted on apologies, announced his errand.

“Old Peter Dwyer is a traitor! He has gone out and brought the murderers to finish the work they have commenced.”

And then, in eager, breathless words, he told them how he had heard the conversation in the shrubbery, and how the men, apprehensive that Miss Connolly could identify them, had returned to stifle her testimony.

“They were right there,” said the old man. “She saw the first blow, and it was struck by Red Mike Driscoll.”

“Then she is better?” asked Harold, eagerly.

The boys were at the other end of the room, slipping cartridges loaded with small shot into the fowling-pieces they had snatched from the walls.

“Oh yes,” replied Mr. Connolly; “she is all right now.”

A sound of heavy blows echoed through the house. The men below had convinced themselves that the door was firmly fastened, and, desperate from the conviction that they were identified, and relying on the loneliness of the place, they were attacking the barrier with a pickaxe.

“I’ll soon put a stop to that,” cried Jack; and cocking his gun, he left the room.

Dick was about to follow, but his father stopped him.

There’s no one in front of the house yet,” said the old gentleman. “Slip out quietly, my boy, and make a dash for it to the police station. You’ve taken the cup for the two-mile race at Trinity. Let’s see how quick you can be when you are running for all our lives.”