or, then others
upon a stone passage, and a light shone beneath his door.

"They sha'n't find me up here," he thought; and he lowered himself down;
but, to his surprise, instead of whoever it was coming right to his
door, he seemed to go down some steps, with another following him. The
light disappeared, and then the footsteps ceased, and he could hear the
rumbling mutter of voices below his feet.

"I hope they are not getting up a gunpowder plot below," said Hilary to
himself, for his dread had given place to curiosity. "I'll be bound to
say that there's a regular store of good things down there waiting to be
turned into prize-money for my lads when I once get back on board.
Hallo! here they come again."

The ascending steps were heard plainly enough, and the light reappeared,
shining feebly beneath the door; and, going softly across, Hilary looked
through the great keyhole, and could see the ill-looking man Allstone
with a candle in one hand and a little keg that might have contained
gunpowder or spirit upon his shoulder.

"Here," he whispered to his companion, "lay hold while I lock up."

It was all in a moment. The keg was being passed from one to the other,
when, between them, they let it fall with a crash, knocking the candle
out of Allstone's hands.

Hilary saw the flash of the contents of the keg as the candle fell upon
the stones; then there was the noise of a dull explosion that rattled
the door; and as the prisoner started back from the door a stream of
blue fire began to run beneath it, and he heard one of the men yell out:

"There's that young officer in there, and he'll be burned to death!"

CHAPTER TWENTY.

A FIERY TRIAL.

It was a terrible position, and for a few moments Hilary felt helpless
to move.

That blue stream of fire came gurgling and fluttering beneath the door,
spreading rapidly over the floor, filling the chapel with a ghastly
glare; and the prisoner saw that in a few moments it would reach the
straw.

Even in those exciting moments he fully comprehended the affair. He
knew, as in a case he had once seen on shipboard, that this was spirit
of extraordinary strength, and that the vapour would explode wherever it
gathered, even while the surface of the stream was burning.

He did not stand still, though, to think, but with all the
matter-of-fact, business habitude of one accustomed to a life of
emergencies, he proceeded to drag the straw into the corner farthest
away fro