ed
out of the wood. In the first moment of alarm it sounded as if the
foresters were carrying the Moat House by assault. And Sir Daniel and
his men, desisting instantly from their attack upon Dick's chamber,
hurried to defend the walls.

"Now," cried Dick, "we are saved."

He seized the great old bedstead with both hands, and bent himself in
vain to move it.

"Help me, Jack. For your life's sake, help me stoutly!" he cried.

Between them, with a huge effort, they dragged the big frame of oak
across the room, and thrust it endwise to the chamber door.

"Ye do but make things worse," said Joanna, sadly. "He will then enter
by the trap."

"Not so," replied Dick. "He durst not tell his secret to so many. It is
by the trap that we shall flee. Hark! The attack is over. Nay, it was
none!"

It had, indeed, been no attack; it was the arrival of another party of
stragglers from the defeat of Risingham that had disturbed Sir Daniel.
They had run the gauntlet under cover of the darkness; they had been
admitted by the great gate; and now, with a great stamping of hoofs and
jingle of accoutrements and arms, they were dismounting in the court.

"He will return anon," said Dick. "To the trap!"

He lighted a lamp, and they went together into the corner of the room.
The open chink through which some light still glittered was easily
discovered, and, taking a stout sword from his small armoury, Dick
thrust it deep into the seam, and weighed strenuously on the hilt. The
trap moved, gaped a little, and at length came widely open. Seizing it
with their hands, the two young folk threw it back. It disclosed a few
steps descending, and at the foot of them, where the would-be murderer
had left it, a burning lamp.

"Now," said Dick, "go first and take the lamp. I will follow to close
the trap."

So they descended one after the other, and as Dick lowered the trap, the
blows began once again to thunder on the panels of the door.

CHAPTER IV

THE PASSAGE

The passage in which Dick and Joanna now found themselves was narrow,
dirty, and short. At the other end of it, a door stood partly open; the
same door, without doubt, that they had heard the man unlocking. Heavy
cobwebs hung from the roof; and the paved flooring echoed hollow under
the lightest tread.

Beyond the door there were two branches, at right angles. Dick chose one
of them at random, and the pair hurried, with echoing footsteps, along
the hollow of the chapel r