“Course it was,” said the ruffian. “Give me a chance, and I’ll burn this place too.”
Barker raised his fist to strike the fellow, but Mr Raydon seized his arm.
“Don’t do that,” he said; “we shall not give him a chance.”
And so it proved, for that night, when I rose after a long deep sleep, I found that a party had started down the valley with the prisoners.
“You came just in time, Mayne Gordon,” said Mr John to me. “I was so frightened that it made me desperate too. I’m afraid I hurt one man.”
“You did, sir,” I said laughing. “Grey told me how you swung your rifle round, and struck him down.”
“I did, my boy, I did,” he said. “Don’t laugh. I do not feel satisfied that I did right.”
“You did it to defend your wife,” said Mr Raydon, who came up; “and I never felt so proud of you before, John. There, I must go and see my injured men.”