He caught it, wrenched it from her grasp, and threw himself from the roof.
The next moment they heard the poker at work, smashing the window.
"He'll be in an' murder's a'!" cried the mother, and ran to the stair, while the children screamed and danced with terror.
But the water was far too deep for her, She returned to the attic, barricaded the door, and went again to the window to watch her drowning husband.
Gibbie was inside in a moment, and seizing the cask, proceeded to attach to it a strong line.

He broke a bit from a fishing-rod, secured the line round the middle of it with a notch, put the stick through the bunghole in the bilge, and corked up the hole with a net-float.

Happily he had a knife in his pocket.

He then joined strong lines together until he thought he had length enough, secured the last end to a bar of the grate, and knocked out both sashes of the window with an axe.

A passage thus cleared, he floated out first a chair, then a creepie, and one thing after another, to learn from what point to start the barrel.