She had barely time to draw aside as her husband and his followers swept past her down the slope.

But it needed not his furious cry, "The Harrisons hev sold us out," to tell her that the crisis had come.
She held her breath as the cavalcade diverged, and in open order furiously approached the water-course, and she could see a sudden check and hesitation in the movement in the meadow at that unlooked-for onset.
Then she thought of the barn.

It would be a rallying-point for them if driven back--a tower of defence if besieged.

There were arms secreted beneath the hay for such an emergency.

She would run there, swing-to its open doors, and get ready to barricade them.
She ran crouchingly, seeking the higher grasses and brambles of the ridge to escape observation from the meadow until she could descend upon the barn from the rear.