An instant later the door was flung back.

The gleam of a lantern showed me the three close together outside, their revolvers levelled.

With a shout, I charged at my utmost pace across the summer-house and through the doorway.

Three shots rang out and battered into my shield.

Another moment, and I leapt out and the table caught them full and square, and in a tumbling, swearing, struggling mass, they and I and that brave table, rolled down the steps of the summerhouse to the ground below.