By the time the last shot was fired the company could hardly see one another.

Prudy, two of whose dishes had been shaken off the dresser, had tumbled upon a settle, and sat there, rocking herself to and fro, with her apron over her head.
The sound of firing had reached the neighbouring houses, and by this time the passage was full of men and women, agog for a tragedy.
The door burst open.

Through the dense atmosphere the stranger descried a crowd of faces in the passage.

He was the first to speak.
"Good folk, you alarm yourselves without cause.

I have merely been pointing an argument that I and my friends happen to be holding here." Then he turned to Calvin Oke, who lay in his chair like a limp sack, slowly recovering from his emotions at hearing the bullets whiz over his head.
"When I assure you that I carry these weapons always about me, you will hardly need to be warned against interfering with me again.