“This won’t do,” said I.  “They’re after the cows.”  And I took the rifle from Denny’s hand, cautioning him not to show his face at the window.  Then I stood in the shelter of the wall, so that I could not be hit by the three, and levelled the rifle, not at any human enemies, but at the unoffending cows.

“A dead cow,” I remarked, “is a great deal harder to move than a live one.”

The five had now come quite near the pen of rude hurdles in which the cows were.  As I spoke, Constantine appeared to give some order; and while he and the boy stood looking on, Constantine leaning on his gun, the boy’s hand resting with jaunty elegance on the handle of the knife in his girdle, the others leaped over the hurdles.  Crack, went the rifle!  A cow fell!  I reloaded hastily.  Crack!  And the second cow fell.  It was very fair shooting in such a bad light, for I hit both mortally; and my skill was rewarded by a shout of anger from the robbers (for robbers they were; I had bought the live stock).

“Carry them off now!” I cried, carelessly showing myself at the window.  But I did not stay there long, for three shots rang out, and the bullets pattered on the masonry above me.  Luckily the covering party had aimed a trifle too high.

“No more milk, my lord,” observed Watkins, in a regretful tone.  He had seen the catastrophe from the other window.

The besiegers were checked.  They leaped out of the pen with alacrity.  I suppose they realized that they were exposed to my fire, while at that particular angle I was protected from the attack of their friends.  They withdrew to the middle of the road, selecting a spot at which I could not take aim without showing myself at the window.  I dared not look out to see what they were doing.  But presently Hogvardt risked a glance, and called out that they were in retreat, and had rejoined the three, and that the whole body stood together in consultation, and were no longer covering my window.  So I looked out, and saw the boy standing in an easy, graceful attitude, while Constantine and Vlacho talked a little apart.  It was growing considerably darker now, and the figures became dim and indistinct.

“I think the fun’s over for to-night,” said I, glad to have it over so cheaply.

Indeed, what I said seemed to be true, for the next moment the group turned, and began to retreat along the road, moving briskly out of our sight.  We were left in the thick gloom of a moonless evening and the peaceful silence of still air.

“They’ll come back and fetch the cows,” said Hogvardt.  “Could we not drag one in, my lord, and put it where the goat is, behind the house?”