d outside, for the entry was dark. Chris
could catch a glimpse on either side of the monk's head of a flare of
light, but no more.

Then the same voice spoke again, and with something of a foreign accent.

"You are there, then; make haste and open."

Another voice shouted authoritatively for silence; and the clamour of
tongues died.

Dom Anthony waited until all was quiet, and then answered steadily.

"Who are you?"

There was an oath; the tumult began again, but hushed immediately, as
the same voice that had called for admittance shouted aloud--

"Open, I tell you, you bloody monk! We come from the King."

"Why do you come?"

A gabble of fierce tongues broke out; Chris pressed up to Dom Anthony's
back, and looked out. The space was very narrow, and he could not see
much more than a man's leg across a saddle, the brown shoulder of a
horse in front, and a smoky haze beyond and over the horse's back. The
leg shifted a little as he watched, as if the rider turned; and then
again the voice pealed out above the tumult.

"Will you open, sir, for the last time?"

"I will not," shouted the monk through the grill. "You are nothing
but--" then he dashed the shutter into its place as a stick struck
fiercely at the bars.

"Back to the cloister," he said.

The roar outside was tremendous as the six went back across the empty
court; but it fell to a sinister silence as an order or two was shouted
outside; and then again swelled with an excited note in it, as the first
crash sounded on the panels.

Chris looked at his father as they stood again on the steps fifty yards
away. The old man was standing rigid, his hands at his sides, staring
out towards the arch of the gateway that now thundered like a drum; and
his lips were moving. Once he caught his breath as a voice shouted above
the din outside, and half turned to his son, his hand uplifted as if for
silence. Then again the voice pealed, and Sir James faced round and
stared into Chris's eyes. But neither spoke a word.

Dom Anthony, who was standing a yard or two in front, turned presently
as the sound of splintering began to be mingled with the reverberations,
and came towards them. His square, full face was steady and alert, and
he spoke with a sharp decision.

"You and Sir Nicholas, sir, had best be within. My place will be here;
they will be in immediately."

His words were perfectly distinct here in the open air in spite of the
uproar from the gate.

There