"I have sent a man after him," I said. "Do you think he can get through that howling mob of savages? I’m afraid he will be killed; and if he isn’t, the doctor can never get in." "Oh, there’s the back gate. I hope the doctor’s not above taking it." I had hardly spoken when I was checked at seeing my messenger standing in the hall. Before I could exclaim at his sudden return, he had beckoned me out with a warning finger on his lips. At his signal I left the room with an attempt to disguise my disturbance of mind under the pretense of idle restlessness. "What’s the matter?" I asked, as soon as I got the man away from the door. "There’s a gang over in the next yard," he said, "and I couldn’t get through. I’m afraid they’re getting ready to set fire to the house. I smelt kerosene when I climbed on the fence. One of ’em says something about ’smoking ’em out,’ an’ I guess they’re fixing up some sort of fire-balls." "Where are you going?" asked Miss Kendrick, coming to the door. "You are not meaning to venture out among those savages again?" "I think it’s time I told them to go home," I said. "They are making a good deal of noise out there." "You must not do anything of the sort," she said, catching my arm. "I told them to go, and if they won’t go for my telling, they won’t go for yours." I bent over her with more tremors than I had felt in the midst of the mob. "I shouldn’t go unless I thought it would help to protect you," I said. "Well, if you must go," said Miss Laura, "please be careful and do not go out the front way. Take the side door, where there’s nobody likely to see you." And leading the way down the passage between the library and the dining-room she slipped a bolt and opened the door enough to let us out. She held out her hand to me. "You’re not to get hurt," she murmured, as I paused. "That settles it. I shall preserve a whole skin." And with a pressure of the hand, I hastened out the door. The yells from the front came with renewed distinctness, but no sounds of attack were to be heard. The mob appeared to have resolved itself into a disorderly debating society. I hurried to the rear of the house with my messenger. "Are any of our men back here?" I asked. "One--Reardon is at the kitchen steps," replied the man. Reardon proved to be awake and ready for any enterprise, and we advanced to the fence and reconnoitered. The dim light showed a band of fifteen or twenty men gathered a few yards away in the vacant lot behind the Kendrick place. "Aren’t they ready yet?" asked one impatient conspirator. "I could have fixed forty fire-balls in the time you’ve taken to fix those three." "Why didn’t you come and do it then?" was the resentful and belligerent answer. "I’ll have them ready in a jiffy." With a few whispered words of direction I stationed my men by the fence, a dozen yards apart, and took my place between them. Then climbing up I gave a blast on a police whistle, and cried: