As the sheriff entered there was a sharp report, and he fell back, shot through the heart.

The rest made a rush forward.

Another shot was fired, but this missed them, and before it could be repeated they had wrested the pistol from the hand of Matheson's wife.

She was firmly secured, and they then entered the kitchen, where, crouched upon the floor, lay seven or eight negro men and women in an agony of terror.

Vincent's question, "Dinah, where are you ?" was answered by a scream of delight; and Dinah, who had been covering her child with her body, leaped to her feet.
"It's all right, Dinah," Vincent said; "but stay here, we haven't finished this business yet." "I fancy the old man's upstairs," one of the men said.