'To blow your brains out, apparently,' answered Mandy, lowering her arms. 'Why are you abroad?'
'To stab you, I fancy,' and Mat sheathed her dagger balked of its prey.
'I heard a noise.'
'So did I.'
'Let's see what it is,' and lighting a candle, the fair Amazons looked boldly about the shadowy room.
Lavinia lay wrapt in slumber, with only the end of her sarcastic nose visible beyond the misty cloud that enveloped her venerable countenance. The outer door was fast, and the shutters closed. No booted feet appeared below the curtains, no living eyes rolled awfully in the portrait of the salmon-coloured saint upon the wall. Yet the rustling and rasping went on, and with one impulse the defenders of sleeping innocence made for the table in the corner.
There was the midnight robber at his fell work!—the big cat peacefully gnawing the cold chicken, and knocking about the treasured crusts dragged from the luncheon-basket carefully packed for an early start.
'Wake and behold the ruin your pet has made!'
'We might be murdered or carried off a dozen times over without her knowing it. Here's a nice duenna!'
And the indignant ladies shook, pinched, and shouted till the hapless sleeper opened one eye, and wrathfully demanded what the matter was.