Then the girls were silent for a few moments, till they both started at the same sound.
"That was a gun!" cried Kate suddenly, leaning further out of the window. "Listen, Cherry! There again--another shot! That can only mean one thing!"
"What thing?" asked Cherry, growing suddenly pale with excitement and fear.
"Highwaymen attacking travellers!" answered her companion, standing straight up, but with her head still inclined in an att.i.tude of keen attention. "Listen, Cherry, listen! Is it the beating of my heart, or is that sound the galloping of horses" hoofs upon the road? Hark! Yes, they grow louder they come this way! Down, Cherry! We must rush to the gates and have them open and take them in!
"Cherry, listen! Be calm, be quiet! Run thou to old Thomas and to Dyson and the rest; tell them what we have heard. I must for the keys. I must have them whether our aunt wills it or no. There be no place of refuge save this for miles around. Here must they find shelter from their foes. It is Lady Humbert"s will; I must fulfil it."
All the while Kate spoke she was running swiftly along the boarded floor, with Cherry keeping pace at her side; and as she dashed down the staircase she paused for a moment and took from the place where they hung two matchlocks, which she knew were always kept loaded, and these she laid quietly down in the hall. Then she opened the parlour door, and walked boldly forward to the spot where the keys lay. Possessing herself of these, she said quietly:
"Be not affrighted, Aunt Dowsabel, but there be folks in trouble on the road. They are pursued by robbers, I fear. I am about to unlock the gates, that we may draw them into safe shelter here."
Petronella sprang to her feet, and Mistress Dowsabel uttered a sharp scream of terror.
"Kate, I forbid it--I forbid it!" she gasped. "The gates shall not be unlocked! Dost hear, child? They shall not be unlocked! We shall have the whole horde upon us, we poor unprotected women! Kate, come back, come back! The keys are mine; I am mistress here! It shall not be done! Girl, I will not be thus defied!"
But Kate was already half through the hall, where the terrified servants were mustering. She had seized up the matchlocks, and now thrust one of them into old Thomas"s shaking hands.
"Take it!" she said, "and when I am gone lock and bolt the door behind me an your lady desires it. But I will not disobey my Lady Humbert, and she would have done as I do now. I go to the gate and I hold it open. I draw within its shelter the pursued, and I strive to close it against the pursuers. All within these walls will be safe.
"Thy place is here, Thomas, beside thy mistress. She will die with terror if thou leave her. I am strong enough to unbar the gates alone, and I have this weapon, which I know how to use.
"Hark! there be cries along the road. The pursuit draws nigh."
Kate flung open the great door and sprang out into the dusky darkness beyond, and Petronella and Cherry, casting one glance at each other, caught up a gleaming weapon from the wall, where many hung, and dashed out after her.
"Shut and lock the door behind us, an you fear for yourselves!" cried Kate, as she led the way down the short flight of steps.
"Girls!" she cried, turning her flushed and resolute face upon her companions, "we three will stand together for weal or woe this night. It may be that we shall save life. We can but lose our own, come what may. Are you ready to face the peril? for these gates must be unbarred."
"We are ready," answered both, as they stood beside her holding her weapon, whilst her strong young hands turned the ponderous key in the lock and slipped back the heavy bolts.
All this while the thundering thud of galloping horse hoofs was approaching nearer and nearer, mingling with the fierce vindictive shouts of the pursuers, that sent thrills of terror through the hearts of two of the girls, but made Kate set her teeth together, and braced her nerves and muscles till they felt as if turned to steel.
"Girls," she said, "listen! I open this gate--so, and stand here with my weapon. As the pursued make for this house, as they most surely will, I shout to them as they near it to fling themselves from their horses and rush in. If they understand, they will do so; but there may be delay. If the pursuers are close at hand, I shall fire at the foremost, and methinks I shall not miss. My hands will be thus occupied. It must be your task to swing to and shut the gate behind the pursued. If any a.s.sailant strive to follow, strike him down without mercy. Methinks a woman"s arm can deal a hard blow! I trow mine could. But, above all, be it your task to guard the gate. Is it understood?"
"It is!" answered both girls in a breath.
They looked back at the house, so close behind them that it was hard to feel afraid. The door stood ajar, and faces peered out into the darkness; but Mistress Dowsabel"s shrill voice was still heard within, and she was plainly hindering any of the servants from going forth to the a.s.sistance of the brave girls without, terrified almost out of her wits at what might occur.
The high wall hid the road from the three who stood beside the gate, but the gasping breath of the horses could now be heard, whilst the fierce cries of pursuit had changed to an ominous silence, as though not even a breath was to be wasted--every nerve being strained to the effort of the chase.
It was terrible to be able to see nothing. Petronella suddenly made a rush towards the wall, and finding foothold here and there in the c.h.i.n.ks of the brick work, contrived to swing upwards her light frame till she could look over the top.
"There be three pursued," she cried to those below; "and methinks the hindermost is wounded, he sways so terribly in the saddle. The pursuers are close behind; it seems well nigh as if they must come up with them.
"Oh, well done, good horses; oh, well done!
"Kate, they be close at hand; they are making for the gate as a dove to its nest!"
Then Kate suddenly threw both doors wide and stood out in the dim moonlight.
"Fling yourselves from your horses, gentlemen, and come in!" she cried, in clear, penetrating tones. "There is shelter behind these walls. And the first man who dares to follow I shoot dead!"
Then as the foremost horseman obeyed her, flinging himself from the saddle, and staggering rather than walking within the gates, at either one of which stood one of the two girlish guardians, ready at a moment"s notice to fling them together again, a quick sharp cry broke from Kate"s lips, together with the one word:
"Father!"
The second horseman was now within the gates; the third was close behind. But there was a yell as of triumph, and suddenly Kate"s eyes flashed fire. There was the sharp report of a gun. The girl flung the smoking weapon in the face of a second a.s.sailant, and dragged within the gate the prostrate form of the third traveller. Cherry and Petronella banged to the iron portals in the very faces of the foremost a.s.sailants, who had recoiled for a moment before Kate"s blows, and drew the heavy bolts; whilst the shower of oaths and curses which arose from the rest of the band, who rode up at that moment, showed how fully they recognized their defeat.
Even the horses had escaped them; for the sagacious animals had recognized their locality, and had made for the yard door at the back, where Joshua had admitted them without delay, glad enough to do anything to a.s.sist the hardly-beset travellers in their hour of need.
The travellers had sunk down just within the gates, so breathless and exhausted that for the first few seconds they did not even know how and by whom their rescue had been effected. But the banging to of the gates, and the sullen murmurs of the highwaymen as they had drawn off, recognizing their defeat, showed those within that for the moment the peril was past. The doors were then thrown open; lights streamed forth into the darkness. Sir Richard Trevlyn rose to his feet, pa.s.sing his hand across his brow, to find his son pa.s.sionately embracing the dark-eyed Petronella, who clung to him, fairly sobbing in her excitement and wonder; whilst Kate knelt beside the prostrate figure of Culverhouse, who lay with closed eyes almost like one dead.
"Kate, my girl, is it to thee we owe our deliverance?"
"Father, is he dead--is he dead?"
The cry was so full of anguish that it went to the father"s heart; and disregarding the shrill welcome and a.s.severations of Mistress Dowsabel, who had just recognized, to her immense relief, that they had admitted their own kinsmen to their doors, he bent over the Viscount, and lifted him in his arms.
"Dead! not a bit of it. Dead men do not ride as he did. But he was wounded in the arm, and has been losing blood fast, and doubtless fainted the moment the strain was over. See, we will lay him here on this settle beside the fire. Give him some wine, and bind up that arm, my girl. Thou wilt choose to wait upon him thyself, I trow. He will soon be able to thank thee for this timely rescue. I must hear more of thy tale when I have spoken with thine aunt."
All was confusion now in the house, but confusion of a pleasant and bustling kind. Joshua brought news that the highwaymen had retreated in disappointment and dudgeon, but, true to their principles, without any attempt at taking vengeance upon the Cross Way House. Sir Richard was striving to soothe the agitation of the timid Dowsabel, and hearing of the absence of the mistress of the house; whilst servants hurried to and fro, setting the table for supper, and vying with each other to provide comforts for the weary travellers, who had been through so much peril and hard riding.
Petronella sat beside Philip in a deep embrasure, and had eyes and ears for him alone. Kate and Cherry, under the direction of Dyson, bound up Lord Culverhouse"s arm, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the colour come back into his face, and his closed eyes slowly open.
When they did this they dwelt for some moments upon Kate"s face in a dreamy fashion, as though their owner thought himself still in some sort of a dream; but when she raised his head and put a cup to his lips, he seemed to awake with a start, and after thirstily draining the contents of the vessel, he caught her hand, exclaiming:
"Kate--my Kate!--is it truly thou?"
She gave a little cry of joy at hearing him speak in tones so like his own. He pressed the hand he held, whilst she knelt beside him and whispered softly in his ear:
"It is I, indeed, thy little wife. O Culverhouse--and I thought that thou hadst but come hither to die!"
There was a catch in her voice that told how great had been the strain of the past minutes--greater than he could know just then. She found it hard to keep back the tears as she knelt beside him, listening whilst he whispered to her of all that had been said about that sudden marriage of theirs, and how that none would dare to call him free of his plighted word.
"And so thou art in very truth my betrothed wife, sweet Kate," he said, "and none may part us now. It was as I said when I bid thee come and plight thy troth. It was a pledge too solemn to be broken. My father and mother say so, and so does thy father. We may not be able to wed just yet; but if what I hear be true, sure our day of waiting need not be so very long."
The colour had come back into her face now; her eyes were sparkling in their old fashion. She looked indeed the same "saucy Kate" that he had known and loved ever since his early boyhood.
There were steps behind them, and Sir Richard emerged from the room where he had been holding counsel with Mistress Dowsabel. He looked at the two beside the fireplace, and at that other pair in the window, both too much absorbed in each other to heed him; and with a smile upon his face he strode forward and laid his hand upon Kate"s shoulder.
"And so, my headstrong daughter, it is to that strong will of thine, and the reckless courage I have sometimes chidden, that we owe our lives and our safety today?" he said.
Culverhouse looked up eagerly.
"What sayest thou, sir?" he asked, whilst Kate"s face crimsoned over from brow to chin.