Mary was standing near Owen, and she had reached down for one of the pistols that lay on the floor.
By the time the men entered the door she had raised the weapon, and as the first figure burst through the opening, she leveled the weapon and pulled the trigger.
The gun went off, but did no apparent damage, and before she could fire again the men were upon her.

She threw the heavy weapon into the face of the man nearest her--she did not look at him; and ran through the nearest door, which opened into the kitchen.

She heard the man curse as the weapon struck him full in the face, and she knew, then, that she had struck Dale.
In the kitchen the girl hesitated.

She would have gone outside, on the chance that the men there might not see her, but, hesitating at the kitchen door, she saw a big man running toward it.
So she turned and ran into the room she used as a pantry, slamming the door behind her, bolting it and leaning against it, breathing heavily.
She had not, however, escaped the eyes of the man who had been running toward the kitchen door.

She heard Dale's voice, asking one of the men if he had seen her, and the latter answered: "She ducked into the pantry and closed the door." She heard a man step heavily across the kitchen floor, and an instant later he was shoving against the door with a shoulder.
"Bolted, eh ?" he said with a short laugh.