ed his message, and Le Marchant, with his ear against the door,
nodded confirmation of our fears. The breakfast we were invited to
consisted of muskets and cutlasses and hard blows.

It was Le Marchant's very reasonable anger at this treacherous usage that
saved us in a way we had not looked for. But possibly there was in him some
dim idea of chances of escape in what might follow. Chance there was none
if we walked into the next room or tried the window.

Our comfortable bed consisted of sweet soft hay inside the usual covering.
He suddenly ripped this open, tore out the hay in handfuls and flung it
under the bedstead, then pulled out his flint and steel and set it ablaze.
The room was full of smoke in a moment, and we heard startled cries from
the outer room. Taking the stout oak chair by opposite legs we pulled till
they parted, and we were armed.

The door burst open and the miller went down headlong under Le Marchant's
savage blow.

"Next!" he cried, swinging his club athwart the doorway. But, though there
were many voices, no head was offered for his blow.

The flames burned fiercely behind us. With a crack of my chair leg I broke
both windows, and the smoke poured out and relieved us somewhat, and the
fire blazed up more fiercely still. The flooring was all on fire and the
dry old walls behind the bed, and we stood waiting for the next man to
appear.

"Better give in, boys," cried someone in the outer room. "You'll only make
things worse for yourselves." But we answered never a word, and stood the
more cautiously on our guard.

Then they began throwing buckets of water in at the door, and we heard it
splashing also on the outer walls, but none came near the fire, since the
bed was not opposite the door.

We were scorched and half smothered, but the draught through the door and
out at the window still gave us chance to breathe.

The bedstead fell in a blazing heap, the flames crept round the walls. We
could not stand it much longer. We would have to lay down our chair legs
and surrender.

Then a very strange thing happened.

Le Marchant saw it first and grabbed my arm.

The portion of the blazing bedstead nearest the wall sank down through the
floor and disappeared, and at a glance we saw our way, though how far it
might lead us we could not tell.

"Allons!" said Le Marchant, and without a moment's hesitation leaped down
into the smoke that came rolling up out of the hole, and I followed.

We land