"There be three pursued," she cried to those below; "and methinks the hindermost is wounded, he sways so terribly in the saddle. The pursuers are close behind; it seems well nigh as if they must come up with them.
"Oh, well done, good horses; oh, well done!
"Kate, they be close at hand; they are making for the gate as a dove to its nest!"
Then Kate suddenly threw both doors wide and stood out in the dim moonlight.
"Fling yourselves from your horses, gentlemen, and come in!" she cried, in clear, penetrating tones. "There is shelter behind these walls. And the first man who dares to follow I shoot dead!"
Then as the foremost horseman obeyed her, flinging himself from the saddle, and staggering rather than walking within the gates, at either one of which stood one of the two girlish guardians, ready at a moment's notice to fling them together again, a quick sharp cry broke from Kate's lips, together with the one word:
"Father!"
The second horseman was now within the gates; the third was close behind. But there was a yell as of triumph, and suddenly Kate's eyes flashed fire. There was the sharp report of a gun. The girl flung the smoking weapon in the face of a second assailant, and dragged within the gate the prostrate form of the third traveller. Cherry and Petronella banged to the iron portals in the very faces of the foremost assailants, who had recoiled for a moment before Kate's blows, and drew the heavy bolts; whilst the shower of oaths and curses which arose from the rest of the band, who rode up at that moment, showed how fully they recognized their defeat.
Even the horses had escaped them; for the sagacious animals had recognized their locality, and had made for the yard door at the back, where Joshua had admitted them without delay, glad enough to do anything to assist the hardly-beset travellers in their hour of need.
The travellers had sunk down just within the gates, so breathless and exhausted that for the first few seconds they did not even know how and by whom their rescue had been effected. But the banging to of the gates, and the sullen murmurs of the highwaymen as they had drawn off, recognizing their defeat, showed those within that for the moment the peril was past. The doors were then thrown open; lights streamed forth into the darkness. Sir Richard Trevlyn rose to his feet, passing his hand across his brow, to find his son passionately embracing the dark-eyed Petronella, who clung to him, fairly sobbing in her excitement and wonder; whilst Kate knelt beside the prostrate figure of Culverhouse, who lay with closed eyes almost like one dead.