'll blow your brains out!'--and he
levelled a pistol.

'Blow and be d----d,' coolly remarked the Doctor, who knew very well
that he dare not fire--'come, Mr. Sydney, follow me, and leave these
fellows to talk to the empty air.'

With much difficulty the two fugitives began to move off through the mud
and water.

'What, cowards, will you let them escape before your eyes?' roared the
Dead Man, as he rushed up to the brink of the chasm, and glared after
Sydney and his friend with flaming eyes. 'Plunge in after them, and
bring them back, or by G----every man of you shall die the death of a
dog!'

Not a man stirred to obey the order; and the miscreant would have leaped
into the sewers himself, had they not forcibly held him back.

'No, no, Captain,' cried Maggot--'the Doctor's too much for you; you've
only got one hand now, and you'd be no match for him, for he's the
devil's pup at a tussle. Let them both slide this time; you may catch
them napping before long. As it is, they've got but a devilish small
chance of escape, for it rains terribly overhead, which will fill up the
sewers, and drown them like kittens.'

Meanwhile, Frank and his brave deliverer struggled manfully through the
foul waters which encompassed them. Soon an angle in the wall concealed
them from their enemies; and they entered a passage of vast extent,
arched overhead with immense blocks of stone. This section of the sewers
was directly under Canal street, and pursued a course parallel with that
great avenue, until its contents were emptied into the North river. Our
subterranean travellers could distinctly hear the rumbling of the carts
and carriages in the street above them, like the rolling of thunder.

It was an awful journey, through that dark and loathsome place. At every
few steps they encountered the putrid carcase of some animal, floating
on the surface of the sickening stream. As they advanced, hundreds of
gigantic rats leaped from crevices in the wall, and plunged into the
water. Their lamp cast its dim rays upon the green, slimy stone-work on
either side of them; and their blood curdled with horror as they saw,
clinging there, hideous reptiles, of prodigious size, engendered and
nourished there. They imagined that at every step they took, they could
feel those monsters crawl and squirm beneath their feet--and they
trembled lest the reptiles should twine around their limbs, and strike
deadly venom to their blood. But a new terror came to