p by
themselves as before.

The two gentlemen in private clothes who had kept aloof, now rode
forward, one on either side the officer. The proclamation having been
produced and read by one of them, the officer called on Barnaby to
surrender.

He made no answer, but stepping within the door, before which he had
kept guard, held his pole crosswise to protect it. In the midst of a
profound silence, he was again called upon to yield.

Still he offered no reply. Indeed he had enough to do, to run his eye
backward and forward along the half-dozen men who immediately fronted
him, and settle hurriedly within himself at which of them he would
strike first, when they pressed on him. He caught the eye of one in the
centre, and resolved to hew that fellow down, though he died for it.

Again there was a dead silence, and again the same voice called upon him
to deliver himself up.

Next moment he was back in the stable, dealing blows about him like a
madman. Two of the men lay stretched at his feet: the one he had marked,
dropped first--he had a thought for that, even in the hot blood and
hurry of the struggle. Another blow--another! Down, mastered, wounded in
the breast by a heavy blow from the butt-end of a gun (he saw the weapon
in the act of falling)--breathless--and a prisoner.

An exclamation of surprise from the officer recalled him, in some
degree, to himself. He looked round. Grip, after working in secret all
the afternoon, and with redoubled vigour while everybody's attention was
distracted, had plucked away the straw from Hugh's bed, and turned up
the loose ground with his iron bill. The hole had been recklessly filled
to the brim, and was merely sprinkled with earth. Golden cups, spoons,
candlesticks, coined guineas--all the riches were revealed.

They brought spades and a sack; dug up everything that was hidden there;
and carried away more than two men could lift. They handcuffed him
and bound his arms, searched him, and took away all he had. Nobody
questioned or reproached him, or seemed to have much curiosity about
him. The two men he had stunned, were carried off by their companions in
the same business-like way in which everything else was done. Finally,
he was left under a guard of four soldiers with fixed bayonets, while
the officer directed in person the search of the house and the other
buildings connected with it.

This was soon completed. The soldiers formed again in the yard; he was
marched out, with