ur said. "I wonder that I am alive at all, but I
don't know that I am really much hurt."

"Well, let us try and see," Jack said.

"See!" Jim repeated scornfully. "Why, I can't see my own hand."

"Well, I mean let us find out if we can stand up and move about. We
shall find out, anyhow, whether any of our bones are broken."

With some difficulty and with many exclamations of pain the lads rose to
their feet.

"Are both you fellows up?" Jim asked.

"Yes."

"Well, then, we can't be very bad, anyhow. My arms are very stiff, and
it seems to me that my jacket is soaked with blood, but where it comes
from I do not know. I feel as if my head and face were one mass of cuts
and bruises."

"That is just how I feel, Jim," Arthur replied, and Jack agreed.

"Well, this is the rummest affair!" Jim said more cheerfully, now it
seemed that none of them had sustained any very serious injury. "There
were we a few hours ago eating ices and enjoying ourselves stunningly;
then this frightful row took place (what it was all about I have not the
least idea), and just as it seemed all up with us the fellow this place
belongs to (at least I suppose it belongs to him) steps in and saves us,
and then we are dragged up here and chucked into this hole."

"It seems like a dream," Arthur said.

"It is a good deal too real to be a dream, it is a mighty unpleasant
reality. Well, I wish there was a little daylight so that we could see
what has happened to us and tie ourselves up a bit; as it is, there is
nothing to do but to lie down again and try to get off to sleep. I say,
won't there be a row after this, when they get to know at home what has
taken place. I wonder what they are going to do with us in the morning?
Do you think they mean to kill us, Jack?"

"No, I should not think there was a chance of that. This fellow would
not have taken us out of the hands of the mob just for the pleasure of
cutting our throats privately. Still the rough way we were carried along
and thrown down here does not look as if he did it from any feeling of
kindness," Jack remarked.

"No, I do not suppose he did it from kindness, Jack; anyhow, it does not
look like it. Well there is no use halloing about that now, let us try
and get a sleep. My head feels as if it was swollen up as big as a
four-gallon keg."

Accustomed not unfrequently to get a nap when on watch under the lee of
the bulwark, the hardness of the ground did not trouble the boys, and
before