Jim's ear by a hair's-breadth, stuck quivering in the
panelling behind him.

With a growl of rage Douglas pulled the trigger of his pistol, firing
twice in quick succession, while, close beside him, Terry's revolver
also spoke out, and so close were their foremost assailants that every
bullet took effect, four men plunging heavily forward to the ground,
almost within arm's length of the two boys. This circumstance, so far
from intimidating the Chilians, seemed but to stimulate their rage, and
knives began to flash through the air like so many silver flying-fish,
thrown, too, with such force that had one of them but hit its mark it
would have closed the recipient's earthly career on the spot.

"By the Lord Harry!" ejaculated Terry, firing rapidly into the thick of
the crowd, "this is getting rather too warm to be pleasant; we shall
have fired away all the cartridges in our pistols presently, and they
will certainly give us no time to reload. What is to be our next move,
Jim?"

Douglas, however, had already been glancing hastily about him, in the
endeavour to discover some pathway of escape, and, even as Terry spoke,
his eyes lighted upon the door close to which they had been sitting
while they were taking their breakfast.

"Edge along toward the right a little, Terry," he exclaimed; "our only
hope of escape is through that door. God grant that it may not be
locked!"

Meanwhile O'Meara, availing himself of a momentary pause on the part of
their assailants, had contrived to insert a few fresh cartridges in his
pistol, and, firing several more shots right into the "brown," began to
edge his way along to the door, in which manoeuvre he was quickly
followed by Douglas. Then, shooting out his left hand behind him, he
felt for the knob, and turned it, knowing that their lives depended upon
whether it was fastened or otherwise. To his inexpressible relief, the
handle turned, and the door opened under his touch, while, luckily for
the two lads, it opened away from instead of toward them.

Emptying the remaining barrels of their revolvers, the boys at once
slipped through, and pushed the door close behind them, just as a
further volley of knives came hurtling through the air, to stick
quivering in the panelling, while, with a hoarse roar of rage, the
Chilians surged forward bent on preventing the escape of the supposed
spies. But by the greatest good luck there happened to be a lock and a
couple of bolts on the farth