Then the boarder and I were to stand up, back to back, each with pistol in hand, and fire away, revolving on a common centre the while.

In this way, by aiming horizontally at about four feet from the floor, we could rake the premises, and run no risk of shooting each other or the women of the family.
To be sure, there were some slight objections to this plan.

The boarder's room was at some distance from ours, and he would probably not hear the alarm, and the burglars might not be willing to wait while I went forward and roused him up, and brought him to our part of the house.

But this was a minor difficulty.

I had no doubt but that, if it should be necessary, I could manage to get our boarder into position in plenty of time.
It was not very long before there was an opportunity of testing the plan.
About twelve o'clock one night one of the alarms (that on the kitchen window) went off with a whirr and a wild succession of clangs.