r to hold, so that they
were only beginning to mount the steps as Drake and Frobisher reached
the top and darted in through the great doorway. Drake was by this time
dreadfully out of breath, and gaspingly protested that he had come to
the end of his tether; nevertheless he managed to muster sufficient
strength to jog along close behind his friend. At their last
hiding-place they had sought concealment aloft, but Frobisher decided
now to take refuge below, since the palace appeared to be the kind of
structure that would afford a better prospect of escape from the vaults
or cellars.

Accordingly the younger man kept his eyes open for a flight of steps
leading downward, and, as the pirates were close behind, darted down the
first that met his eyes. This was a narrow, winding, stone staircase
that led downward so far that they appeared to be reaching to the very
bowels of the earth; but the pair eventually came to the bottom, finding
themselves in a long, stone-flagged corridor, extending a considerable
distance, and very dimly lighted by small gratings which evidently
communicated with some chamber above.

They seemed to have come to the end of their tether at last, however,
for nowhere could they find an opening leading out of the corridor. And
already they could hear the pirates descending the stairs.

"Come, Drake!" whispered Frobisher; "we dare not remain here. Let's try
to the left; there may be a door concealed somewhere among the shadows.
I wish we had a little more light."

The other end of the passage was reached without a single exit being
discovered, and there was no time to run back and try farther in the
other direction.

"This is the end, I guess," said Drake, as the approaching footsteps
sounded nearer. "It's `backs against the wall and fight to the death'
for us now, my friend."

Suiting the action to the word, the little skipper grasped his cudgel by
the thinner end, took his revolver--with only one shot remaining--in his
other, and flung himself backward against the wall.

Then a curious thing happened. The solid wall at the end of the passage
yielded to the pressure of the skipper's body, and Drake, still leaning
against it, fell farther and farther backward, until at last he found
himself in a reclining position on the now sloping wall. Then, to
Frobisher's unbounded amazement, the little man disappeared from view, a
dull thud from below announcing the fact that he had dropped a distanc