scream out beyond the casement, and thereafter a loud voice that
hailed:

"House ho! House ahoy! Light ho! Show a glim, ye drunken
dogs!" and here followed a rush of roaring sea-oaths, drowned in
a scream, louder, wilder than before. Then, while this
distressful cry yet thrilled upon the air, pandemonium broke
loose about me, shouts, cries and a rush and trample of feet; the
table went over with a crash and the darkness about me rained
blows. But as they struck random and fierce, so struck I and (as
I do think) made right goodly play with my hedge-stake until,
caught by a chance blow, I staggered, tripped and, falling
headlong, found myself rolling upon sodden grass outside the
shattered window. For a moment I lay half-dazed and found in the
wind and rain vasty comfort and refreshment.

Then in the pitchy gloom hard by I heard that which brought me to
my feet--an evil scuffling, a close and desperate struggling--a
man's hoarse laugh and a woman's pitiful pleading and sobbing. I
had lost my staff, but I yet grasped my knife, and with this held
point upwards and my left hand outstretched before me, I crept
forward guided by these sounds. My fingers came upon hair, a
woman's long, soft tresses, and I remember marvelling at the
silky feel of them; from these my hand slipped to her waist and
found there an arm that grasped her close, then, drawing back my
hand, I smote with my knife well beneath this arm and drove in
the stout blade twice. The fellow grunted and, loosing the maid,
leapt full at me, but I met him with clenched fist and he went
down headlong, and I, crouched above him and feeling him struggle
to his knees, kicked him back into the mud and thereafter leapt