In his two hands he wielded a wooden pole tipped at the end with a heavy iron scoop, such as are still used in many places to draw water up out of wells. It was clearly the first thing that had come to his hand, but in his present mood it made him the most formidable of weapons. He was lashing out with it with an extraordinary fury, keeping the three men at bay as if they had been yelping dogs, and as an extra flicker from the fire lit up his face afresh it seemed to Abbershaw that it was transformed; he looked more like the Avenging Angel than a scholar with a well scoop.
Campion whipped out his gun, and his quiet high voice sounded clearly through the noise.
‘Now then, now then! Put ’em up!’ he said distinctly. ‘There’s been enough fun here for this evening. Put ’em up! I’m firing,’ he added quietly, and at the same moment a bullet flashed past the head of the man nearest Wyatt and struck the stone wall behind him. The effect was instantaneous. The noise ceased, and slowly the four members of Dawlish’s gang raised their hands above their heads.
Gradually Wyatt’s uplifted weapon sank to the ground and he dropped down off the sink and collapsed, his head between his knees, his arms hanging limply by his sides.
Martin Watt came reeling into the circle of light by the fire, somewhat battered and dishevelled but otherwise unhurt.
‘Thank God you’ve come,’ he said breathlessly, and grinned. ‘I thought our number was up.’
Mr Campion herded his captives into a straight line along one wall.
‘Now if you fellows will hold them up,’ he said pleasantly, ‘I will repeat my celebrated rope trick. For this performance I shall employ nothing less than actual rope, which I see is all ready waiting for me.’
As he spoke he was unfastening the hank of clothes line which hung ready for use near the fire. He handed Martin his gun, while Abbershaw, more alert this time, held up their captives. As he corded up the four, Martin Watt, still breathless, recounted briefly the events which had led up to the scene they had just witnessed.
‘We got into the kitchen first,’ he said. ‘There didn’t seem to be a soul about except the women. They started to scream the place down though, so we tied ’em up. It wasn’t till we’d done that that we realized that Chris wasn’t with us. We guessed he’d met trouble, so we started to go back. We hadn’t got half-way across the room, though, before the door burst open and a man came in.’