"Now, Tom, are you all ready?" he asked; "I will take the man on the
right side, you the man on the left--knock them over and hold our
pistols to their heads, while we march them up the passage into the
Tower."

"Yes, I'm ready, Mr Charles," answered Tom. "But leave the gun where
we are, it will be only in our way, and I'll stick to my cutlass. We
must be sharp about it, though, for they don't look like fellows who'd
stand child's-play; and yet I've known in the war time, two staunch
fellows take a ship out of the hands of a prize crew of ten men: and so
I don't see why we shouldn't be able to clap into bilboes two big
ragamuffins like those there. Come on!"

The hearts of the bravest must beat quick when they are about to engage
in a desperate struggle with their fellow men. Charley Blount felt his
beat a great deal quicker than usual when he and old Tom were about to
rush on the two smugglers in the cavern, and, as they hoped, overpower
them. They got close up to the door, and pressing with all their might
against the upper part, sent it flat down before them on the floor of
the cavern, and rushing over it threw themselves instantly on the
smugglers, who, astonished at the sudden noise, had not time to rise
from their seats when they felt their throats seized, and saw the
muzzles of a brace of pistols presented at their heads.

Nothing could have been better done, and the two smugglers would have
been made prisoners, but at the same moment a dozen stout fellows, who
had been sleeping round the cavern, and had sprang to their feet at the
noise of the falling door, came round them; the muzzles of the pistols
were knocked up, Tom's going off and the bullet flattening against the
roof of the cavern, and they found their arms pinioned, and instead of
capturing others were themselves made captives. Charley felt bitterly
disappointed and crestfallen, but not for a moment forgetting the object
of his expedition, he looked round the cavern for Margery. She was not
to be seen. "Where have you carried the little girl to?" he asked; "we
came to fetch her. You had no business to carry her off. Take her back
to her father and mother, and you may do what you like with us."

"You are von brave young rogue, _mon jolie garcon_!" exclaimed the man
(the captain of a French lugger), whom Charley had seized. "You have no
fear, it seems, for ghosts nor for men; but you give me von terrible
gripe of my neck. Ah, not you tink w