Some were bearing large pine torches that filled the air with thick smoke and partially lighted up the surrounding gloom.

Most of them were armed with clubs, and a few with guns and pistols.
As they approached the house, there seemed to be a sort of consultation between the ringleaders, for soon after every light was extinguished, and the deafening yells of "Kill the niggers!" "Down with the Abolitionists!" were almost entirely stilled.
"I wonder what that means," said Mr.Walters, who had closed the shutter, and was surveying, through an aperture that had been cut, the turbulent mass below.

"Look out for something soon." He had scarcely finished speaking, when a voice in the street cried, "One--two--three!" and immediately there followed a volley of missiles, crushing in the windows of the chamber above, and rattling upon the shutters of the room in which the party of defenders were gathered.

A yell then went up from the mob, followed by another shower of stones.
"It is now our turn," said Mr.Walters, coolly.

"Four of you place yourselves at the windows of the adjoining room; the rest remain here.