“Now then, whoever you are,” he said in a loud tone, “stand steady, or it will be the worse for you.”
Instantly the light was extinguished. He heard the four-posters creak as the sleepers awoke and sat up; and he was just about to cry a warning to them when a strong hand hurled him aside and a dark figure leaped down the hall toward the window. Nat had a confused sense of hearing startled voices calling out; but he did not pause to learn what they were crying.
“Stop!” he shouted. “Stop, or I’ll fire!”
But the unknown paid no heed. Under the hall window was a porch roof. Leaping through the one he gained the other; as he did so the pistol exploded with a terrific report and the heavy ball flew by his head. He was balancing himself upon the edge of the roof for a leap when Nat sprang out and upon him. Clutched in each other’s arms they swung backward and forward for a moment and then fell into the road.
The shock broke their holds. Bruised and bleeding Nat Brewster staggered to his feet. Lights were beginning to flash at the inn windows and eager faces to peer out. The stranger was also rising; the saddle-bags were in his hands, and Nat sprang forward to grasp them, when he received a terrific blow from behind and fell forward upon his face in the dust of the road.
Ben Cooper, staring from his bedroom window, candle in hand, saw the person who struck the blow raise his bludgeon as though to deliver a second.
“It’s the stranger with the earrings,” cried the boy.
Lights were now shining from various windows and the roadway before the inn was dimly illuminated; the man was clearly the same, and there was a fierce look upon his face as he steadied himself for the finishing stroke. But just then came a most tremendous barking and growling; petrified with astonishment, Ben saw a great dog rushing furiously forward from the inn yard—and held in leash by the Porcupine.
The monstrous beast sprang upon the swarthy man and crushed him to the ground; dragging the dwarf after it like a feather, it rushed upon the tall man, who had risen and was gazing around in a most bewildered manner.
Then Ben, followed by Ezra, leaped out upon the porch and thence to the ground; and though they arrived upon the scene of action but a moment or two later, it was to find the two strangers gone, and the Porcupine and dog masters of the situation.