“We must attend to the door,” he continued. “I shall draw the top bolt now. Crouch down with your hands on the bottom one, and, when the shout comes, draw it; I will draw the middle one, and when I say, ‘Pull,’ drag with me on the door. It is almost too heavy for one man to move, but between us—and they will push from the outside.”
Deirdre crouched at his knees. A vast confusion of noise began to draw nigh.
“They are coming back,” said Ainnle. “Draw your bolt now, sister, and take hold of the knob.”
Above the infernal uproar there came the shout they knew.
“Pull!” he roared.
The door gave, a great push from without helped it, and the four leaped through. A blade leaped in behind them and was snapped in pieces as Ainnle, and a shoulder helping, smashed-to the door.
Buinne was panting heavily.
“That deserves a rest,” he said.
And the other three began with one voice to narrate the sortie to the two who had been within.