for it! Pikes."

The men, Edenites and Darleyites, closed in together, forgetting all
their animosities, and their pike-heads gathered into a dense mass,
clashing against those which bristled in the narrow opening, clinked
against the stone sides, and rattled, as the holders thrust and stabbed
away past their young leaders' shoulders, for, to their great disgust,
both Mark and Ralph found that they could do nothing with their swords.

And now the silence which had reigned was further broken by the excited
cries of the men, given at every thrust they made into the opening,
their attack eliciting yells of defiance, oaths, and threats of what
would be done directly.

The fight went on for a few minutes, with apparently no effect on either
side, the attacking party being unable to reach the defenders, while the
latter seemed to be too much crippled for space to attack in turn,
contenting themselves with presenting their bristling points against the
advance.

"Halt!" cried Mark suddenly. "This is of no use."

"No," growled Nick Garth, as, in obedience to the order, the men drew
back a couple of yards, to stand, though, with their pikes directed at
the narrow opening.

"Come out, you rats, and fight fair," roared Dan Rugg; and there was a
derisive shout of laughter, which echoed through the chamber, followed
by the hoarse voice of Captain Purlrose.

"Go home, bumpkins!" he shouted, "or we'll spit you all together like
larks."

"Beast!" shouted back Mark; and stepping forward he hurled his link
right in over the pike-heads, amongst their holders, eliciting a series
of thrusts and furious yells, as he took one step back, and fell back
the next. A savage roar rose from his men, answered by another from
within.

"Hurt, Mark Eden?" cried Ralph excitedly, catching at his brother
leader, and saving him from going down.

"No: feel stupid," panted Mark, who looked confused and dizzy; "point
struck this stupid steel cap;" and he tore it off, and threw it down,
though it had in all probability saved his life; the step back he had
taken, however, had lessened the force of the thrust. "Better now.--
Here, stop them. They are doing no good."

For enraged by what had taken place, the attacking party had rushed in
again, to go on stabbing and thrusting away with their pikes, keeping up
a series of rattlings and clashings, till Ralph made his voice heard,
and they drew back, growling angrily, and the weird light shed by the