e!"

He looked at me for an instant, and then nodded.

"I'll get the men ready," he says; "it's our only chance; and with a
bold dash we may do it. I'll see to the armourer's chest for hammers
and spikes. I'll spike one, Smith, and you the other; but, mind, if I
fail, help me, as I will you, if you fail; and God help us! Keep a
sharp look-out till I come back."

He left the room, and I heard a little movement below, as of the men
getting ready for the sally; and all the while I stood watching the
crowd in front, which now began hurrahing and cheering; and there was a
motion which shewed that the guns were being run in nearer, till they
stopped about fifty yards from the gate.

"What makes him so long?" I thought, trembling with excitement;
"another minute, perhaps, and the gate will be battered down, and that
mob rushing in."

Then I thought that we ought all who escaped from the sortie, in case of
failure, to be ready to take to the rooms adjoining where I was, which
would be our last hope; and then I almost dropped my piece, my mouth
grew dry, and I seemed choked, for, with a loud howl, the crowd opened
out, and I saw a sight that made my blood run cold--those two
nine-pounders standing with a man by each breech, smoking linstock in
hand; while bound, with their backs against the muzzles, and their white
faces towards us, were Captain Dyer and Harry Lant!

One spark--one touch of the linstock on the breech--and those two brave
fellows' bodies would be blown to atoms; and, as I expected that every
moment such would be the case, my knees knocked together; but the next
moment I was down on those shaking knees, my piece made ready, and a
good aim taken, so that I could have dropped one of the gunners before
he was able to fire.

I hesitated for a moment before I made up my mind which to try and save,
and the thought of Lizzy Green came in my mind, and I said to myself: "I
love her too well to give her pain," when, giving up Captain Dyer, I
aimed at the gunner by poor Harry Lant.

"Don't fire," said a voice just then, and, turning, there was Lieutenant
Leigh. "The black-hearted wretches!" he muttered. "But we are all
ready; though now, if we start, it will be the signal for the death of
those two.--But what does this mean?"

What made him say that, was a chief all in shawls, who rode forward and
shouted out in good English, that they gave us one hour to surrender;
but, at the end of that time, if we had no