nce, but retreated before him laughing with all their might.

Hilary was about to seize the opportunity to chase them onward through
the passage and try to escape, but Allstone was too quick for him.

On being driven out the man had taken refuge behind the door, and as the
last man of his companions passed he dashed it to, striking Hilary full
and driving him backwards into the chapel, as it slammed against the
post with a heavy echo, and was locked and bolted.

"Stop there, and starve and rot," the ruffian cried through the keyhole
furiously, as Hilary stood panting and shaking first one hand and then
the other, against which the door, to the saving of his face, had come
with tremendous force.

"We'll see about that," said Hilary to himself, as he gave the cutlass a
flourish; and then, as the steps died down the passage and he heard the
farther door close, with the steps of the men passing over the empty
boarded room, he laughed at the change that had come over the scene
during the last quarter of an hour.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

TEMPTATION.

There was something ludicrous in the struggle that had taken place,
especially as Hilary had so thoroughly won the day; but at the same time
there was a very unpleasant side to his position. It was in the middle
of the night and very dark, save in one corner of the stone-floored
place where the remains of the heap of straw displayed a few sparks, and
sent up a thin thread of smoke, which rose to the ceiling and there
spread abroad, the rest having passed away, driven out by the draught
caused by the open door. He had not a scrap of furniture; the straw was
all burned, and the floor of his prison was stone.

Still there was one good thing upon his side--one which afforded Hilary
the most intense satisfaction, and this was the fact that he had secured
the cutlass. Not that he wanted it for fighting, though it might prove
useful in case of need for his defence; but it suggested itself to him
as being a splendid implement for raising one of the stones in the
floor, with which help he might possibly get into the cellars or vaults
below, and so escape.

"But I don't like going to sleep on the stones," said Hilary to himself,
and tucking the cutlass under his arm, he felt the flooring in different
places.

To his surprise he found it perfectly dry, for the intensely strong
spirit had burned itself completely out, leaving not so much as a humid
spot; and after climbing up