."

"Ha-ha!" laughed Ralph; "and they have no room, I suppose. Look here,
let's have a dash for it."

"What! run away? That I won't, from them, so long as I've got a sword."

"Run away! No!" cried Ralph, who was bubbling over with excitement, the
slight wound he had received acting as a spur to his natural desire to
punish some one for his pain. "Can't you see that if we make a dash at
them on one side, we shall only have two to fight for a bit till the
others can come up; and we might wound the first two if we're quick,
before their companions could attack."

"Well said, general," cried Mark excitedly. "That's right. Let's look
sharp then, for my leg hurts as if it was getting stiff."

"Never mind your leg. Hallo! hark!"

"Why don't you come on yourself, then?" shouted one of the men, in
answer to a good deal of gesticulation from the captain. "Take care you
don't get a hole in your skin."

"Hurrah!" cried Mark; "they are afraid. Ready?"

"Yes; come on!" cried Ralph; and the two lads made a rush at the men who
stood in their homeward way, astonishing them so that they turned and
ran before the attacking party had gone half-a-dozen paces.

But a yell of execration rose from the others, as they now made a rush
after the lads, who became pursuers and pursued as well.

A savage yell, too, came from high up the mountain slope, the captain
being joined by the rest of his gang, and standing shouting and waving
his hands furiously.

The position now was this: Two men were running, with the lads some
five-and-twenty yards behind, and gaining on them fast. Two men were
fifty yards away, to right and left; and two more were right behind,
sixty or seventy yards, in full pursuit.

"Forward!" shouted Mark. "No mercy, Darley; run your fellow through,
and then turn and spit that fellow on your right."

The two men in front heard the words, and redoubled their efforts, but
they were heavy, middle-aged scoundrels, and plodded clumsily over the
stone-strewed ground; while, forgetting their wounds in the excitement,
Mark and Ralph bounded along, leaping blocks that stood in their way,
and gaining so fast upon their flying enemies, that in a few minutes
they were close up: and the retreating pair, in response to the yells of
their companions, and in despair, turned at bay, when Mark, who was
first, leaped straight at his man, turning the fellow's rusty sword
aside, and came upon the lower part of his chest with hi