"You will—" the trustee began, but was interrupted by a wail from his wife in the bedroom.
"Jimmy! Oh, Jimmy, don't let 'em have her. They'll duck her in the slough—mebbe drown her like they did Jenny Ross back in Huron."
"Will you shet up!" he roared, but the man outside had heard.
"You bet we will. She needs a little cooling."
"That's surely Mr. Shinn that's talking so fierce!" the trustee taunted. "Man, but you're gaining a heap wolfish, though it did take you some time to work up to the p'int of speech. Why didn't you take the shortcut through Bill's bottle?" His tone suddenly altered from banter to such stern command that they distinctly heard Shinn shuffle back a step from the door. "Burn this house? Get, or I'll blow the black heart out of you!"
A derisive yell rose outside, then silence fell again, a hush so complete that Helen distinctly heard the tick of the clock, her own breathing, the chirrup of a hearth cricket. Pulling the trustee's sleeve, she whispered, "I've brought such trouble upon you!"
"Rubbish!" he snapped. "Say that ag'in an' I'll spank you!" But he gently patted her hand.
A minute slid by without further speech; a second, third, fourth, then she whispered, "Surely they must have gone."
Before he could reply came a rapid beat of running feet, a splintering crash, an oblong of moonlight flashed out of the darkness at the end of the room, and quiet reigned again. Only the battering ram, a long log, poked its blunt nose over the doorsill.
"Stand clear there!" the trustee sharply warned. Then, as a dim, crouched figure appeared between the jambs, he shouted, "Fair warning!" and fired; but as the figure fell back and out, a chuckling laugh drifted through the smoke, Shinn's coarse voice yelled: "His gun's single barrel! In, afore he kin reload!" and a black, surging mass trampled over the dummy and filled the doorway. As aforeseen, the conclusion was justified—the trustee's long gun was familiar as his face in the settlement—and the click of Danvers' left trigger was drowned by a second harsh command—"Fair warning!"