“In a few minutes he stole away restlessly. Then we heard some flower-pots, which stood on the window-ledge of the front bedroom, go crash on the steps below. The Indian devil was getting out of the window.
“Now, the attic in which we had taken refuge was lighted by two windows,—a small one in the gable, looking out upon the barnyard, and the other, a very small skylight, reached by a sort of fixed step-ladder from the attic floor.
“As soon as mother heard the animal’s claws on the side of the house, she thought of the skylight, and cried to Susan to shut it.
“The skylight had an outer shutter of wood, which was closed in winter-time to keep the heavy snowfall from breaking the glass.
“This shutter was now thrown back upon the roof, and the inner sash was raised a few inches for the sake of ventilation. Susan fairly flew up the ladder, and pulled out the little stick that supported the sash.
“She had barely got the hook slipped into the staple when the panther’s round head and big light eyes appeared within a foot of her face. She gave a startled shriek, and fell down the ladder.
“At this juncture the two women gave themselves up for lost; and mother, seizing an old curtain-pole, which lay among the attic lumber, prepared to sell my infant life at a pretty high figure.
“All escape from the attic was blocked by the articles they had so carefully wedged into the stairway. This it would take them some time to clear.
“They never imagined that so fierce a brute as the panther could be stopped by an ordinary sash and glass, however strong.
“But the Indian devil is wary, and this one was suspicious of the glass. When, on attempting to put his head down through the skylight, he met with an obstacle where he did not see any, he thought he detected a trap.