Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/219

Rh alighting in the very midst of the fray, made straight for Tregenna, heedless of the knives and pistols with which the smugglers were armed, and of the vile curses which assailed her ears.

"Go back, go back!" cried he.

"I'll not go back!" retorted Joan, as she still came on, and daringly thrust aside the arm of Jack Price, who had by this time dismounted in his turn. "I'll not see you murdered before my eyes. If they will kill you, they shall kill me too!"

And she sprang through the group and reached Tregenna, while the smugglers, for the moment disconcerted, hung back and looked at her.

"And you, Tom, I'm amazed to see you taking part in an attack like this, half a dozen men against one! Oh, shame on you, shame!" cried she.

Robin Cursemother recovered from his discomfiture before the others.

"'Tis easy to talk!" said he, roughly. "We mean no harm to you, mistress, but we have accounts to settle with this fellow, and that to-night. If so be he's your friend, you should have taught him better manners than to inter-