me unprepared.

I looked out into the night, and there I saw new cause for danger.
Before and around the hut were at a little distance some shadowy forms;
they were quite still, but I knew that they were all alert and on guard.
Small chance for me now in that direction.

Again I stole a glance round the place. In moments of great excitement
and of great danger, which is excitement, the mind works very quickly,
and the keenness of the faculties which depend on the mind grows in
proportion. I now felt this. In an instant I took in the whole
situation. I saw that the axe had been taken through a small hole made
in one of the rotten boards. How rotten they must be to allow of such a
thing being done without a particle of noise.

The hut was a regular murder-trap, and was guarded all around. A
garroter lay on the roof ready to entangle me with his noose if I should
escape the dagger of the old hag. In front the way was guarded by I know
not how many watchers. And at the back was a row of desperate men--I had
seen their eyes still through the crack in the boards of the floor, when
last I looked--as they lay prone waiting for the signal to start erect.
If it was to be ever, now for it!

As nonchalantly as I could I turned slightly on my stool so as to get my
right leg well under me. Then with a sudden jump, turning my head, and
guarding it with my hands, and with the fighting instinct of the knights
of old, I breathed my lady's name, and hurled myself against the back
wall of the hut.

Watchful as they were, the suddenness of my movement surprised both