By the bye, these Doones had got the worst of this pleasant trick one time.  For happening to fire the ricks of a lonely farm called Yeanworthy, not far above Glenthorne, they approached the house to get people’s goods, and to enjoy their terror.  The master of the farm was lately dead, and had left, inside the clock-case, loaded, the great long gun, wherewith he had used to sport at the ducks and the geese on the shore.  Now Widow Fisher took out this gun, and not caring much what became of her (for she had loved her husband dearly), she laid it upon the window-sill, which looked upon the rick-yard; and she backed up the butt with a chest of oak drawers, and she opened the window a little back, and let the muzzle out on the slope.  Presently five or six fine young Doones came dancing a reel (as their manner was) betwixt her and the flaming rick.  Upon which she pulled the trigger with all the force of her thumb, and a quarter of a pound of duck-shot went out with a blaze on the dancers.  You may suppose what their dancing was, and their reeling how changed to staggering, and their music none of the sweetest.  One of them fell into the rick, and was burned, and buried in a ditch next day; but the others were set upon their horses, and carried home on a path of blood.  And strange to say, they never avenged this very dreadful injury; but having heard that a woman had fired this desperate shot among them, they said that she ought to be a Doone, and inquired how old she was.

Now I had not been so very long waiting in our mow-yard, with my best gun ready, and a big club by me, before a heaviness of sleep began to creep upon me.  The flow of water was in my ears, and in my eyes a hazy spreading, and upon my brain a closure, as a cobbler sews a vamp up.  So I leaned back in the clover-rick, and the dust of the seed and the smell came round me, without any trouble; and I dozed about Lorna, just once or twice, and what she had said about new-mown hay; and then back went my head, and my chin went up; and if ever a man was blest with slumber, down it came upon me, and away went I into it.

Now this was very vile of me, and against all good resolutions, even such as I would have sworn to an hour ago or less.  But if you had been in the water as I had, ay, and had long fight with it, after a good day’s work, and then great anxiety afterwards, and brain-work (which is not fair for me), and upon that a stout supper, mayhap you would not be so hard on my sleep; though you felt it your duty to wake me.

CHAPTER XLIX

MAIDEN SENTINELS ARE BEST

[Illustration:  432.jpg Illustrated Capital]

It was not likely that the outlaws would attack out premises until some time after the moon was risen; because it would be too dangerous to cross the flooded valleys in the darkness of the night.  And but for this consideration, I must have striven harder against the stealthy approach of slumber.  But even so, it was very foolish to abandon watch, especially in such as I, who sleep like any dormouse.  Moreover, I had chosen the very worst place in the world for such employment, with a goodly chance of awakening in a bed of solid fire.