That, in its turn, stopped too; there was a great fall of dry thatch on the floor; and I saw the heavy, hairy hand of Shifty Dick, armed with the knife, come through after the fallen fragments.

He tapped at the rafters with the back of the knife, as if to test their strength.

Thank God, they were substantial and close together! Nothing lighter than a hatchet would have sufficed to remove any part of them.
The murderous hand was still tapping with the knife when I heard a shout from the man Jerry, coming from the neighborhood of my father's stone-shed in the back yard.

The hand and knife disappeared instantly.

I went to the back door and put my ear to it, and listened.
Both men were now in the shed.