won't let any one
pass, any more than the besieged will."

"Why?"

"They're afraid of gold being taken away. It seems that there's a sort
of discipline among them and that they're obeying leaders whose object
is to capture from the besieged the enormous booty which they have
accumulated. And, as the assailants are ten or even twenty to one, we
must expect a wholesale massacre!"

The night was full of tumult. Simon observed that the dense layer of
clouds was breaking up in places and that gleams of light were falling
from the starry sky. They could see figures darting across the arena.
Two men first, then a number of others boarded the _Ville de
Dunkerque_ and went down the nearest companion way.

"Rolleston's accomplices returning," murmured Antonio.

"What for? Are they looking for Rolleston?"

"No, they think he's dead. But there are the bags, the bags filled
with coin, and they are all going to fill their pockets."

"The gold is there, then?"

"In the cabins. Rolleston's share on one side; his accomplices on the
other."

Below deck quarrels were beginning, followed almost immediately by a
general affray, which was punctuated by yells and moans. One by one
the victors emerged from the companion way. But shadows crept down it
all night long; and the newcomers were heard searching and destroying.

"They'll find Rolleston in the end," said Simon.

"I don't care if they do," said Antonio, with a grin which Simon was
to remember thereafter.

The Indian was getting together their arms and ammunition. A little
before daybreak, he awoke Lord Bakefield and his daughter and gave
them rifles and revolvers. The final assault would not be long
delayed; and he calculated that the _Ville de Dunkerque_ would be the
immediate objective of the assailants and that it would be better not
to linger there.

The little party therefore set out when the first pale gleams of dawn
showed in the sky. They had not set foot on the sand of the arena
before the signal for the attack was given by a powerful voice which
sounded from the bulk of the submarine; and it so happened that, at
the very moment when the final offensive was launched, when the
besieged, better armed than the attackers, were taking measures of
defense which were also better organized, the roar of the eruption
rent the air with its thousand explosions.

Then and there, the enemy's onslaught became more furious, and the
besieged began to retreat, as Simon and An