"Mr Leslie, let us pass!" cried Louise imperiously, but he paid no heed to her, continuing to address his supposed rival in calm, judicial tones, which did not express the wild rage seething in his heart. "I say once more, sir, let there be no violence--for your own sake--for hers." Harry continued to advance, with Louise's hand in his, till Leslie had pressed close to the door. "Once more I warn you," said Leslie, "for I swear by Heaven you shall not pass while I can lift a hand." At that moment, in the obscurity, Louise felt her hand dropped, and she reeled to the side of the room, as now, with a fierce, harsh sound, Harry sprang at Leslie's throat, pushed him back against the door in his sudden onslaught, and then wrenched him away. "Quick, Louise!" he cried in French. "The door!" Louise recovered herself and darted to the door, the handle rattling in her grasp. But she did not open it. She stood as if paralysed, her eyes staring and lips parted, gazing wildly at the two dimly-seen shadows which moved here and there across the casement frames in a curiously weird manner, to the accompaniment of harsh, panting sounds, the dull tramping of feet, heavy breathing, and the quick, sharp ejaculations of angry men. Then a fresh chill of horror shot through her, as there was a momentary cessation of the sounds, and Leslie panted, "Hah! then you give in, sir!" The apparent resignation of his adversary had thrown him off his guard, and the next moment Harry had sprung at him, and with his whole weight borne him backwards, so that he fell with his head upon the bare patch of the hearthstone. There was the sound of a terrible blow, a faint rustling, and then, as Louise stood there like one in a nightmare, she was roused to action by her brother's words. "Quick!" he whispered, in a hoarse, panting way. "Your hat and mantle. Not a moment to lose!" The nightmare-like sensation was at an end, but it was still all like being in a dream to Louise, as, forced against her own will by the effort of one more potent, she ran up to her own room, and catching up a bonnet and a loose cloak, she ran down again. "You have killed him," she whispered. "Pish! stunned. Quick, or I shall be caught." He seized her wrist, and hurried her out of the front door just as Liza went in at the back, after a long whispered quarrel with her mother, who was steadily plodding down towards the town as brother and sister stepped out. "What's that? some one in front?" whispered Harry, stopping short. "Here, this way." "Harry!" moaned his sister, as he drew her sidewise and began to climb up the rough side of the path so as to reach the rugged land above. "It is the only chance," he said hastily. "Quick!"