for, if they had
only assisted us, now that their assailants had dropped their firearms,
and were engaged in a regular rough-and-tumble fight, we could have
mastered them, I'm sure, as, counting Bob and myself in, we were nearly
man for man as many as they were.

The struggle did not last long, although dad and the captain held out
bravely to the last, flooring the brigands one after another, and
knocking them down as if they had been nine-pins. They were presently
tied securely, with their arms behind them, and menaced with death if
they stirred, by a brawny ruffian touching each of their heads with a
pistol barrel. As for Bob and me, they did not think it necessary to
tie us.

"Well, this is a delightful ending to our picnic," said Mr Moynham in
lugubrious tones, as we all lay on the ground, with the exception of the
guides, who appeared to mingle freely with the robbers, who were grouped
in picturesque attitudes around us, leaning on their carbines. "I
wonder what's their little game?"

The leader presently gave an order, and our seniors were then each
lifted on to a horse or mule, and tied securely there.

"At all events," said Mr Moynham, who kept up his spirits still
wonderfully, "we sha'n't fall off, that's one comfort, and so we'll have
the less bruises after the scrimmage!"

Although the chief brigand scowled at me, he allowed me to lift poor
Rollo, who was not dead as I had feared, and I bandaged his neck where
the wound was with my handkerchief, and took him up in front of me.

The leader then spoke vehemently in his own language to one of the
treacherous guides, who approached dad as if to speak.

"Away, scoundrel!" said dad, wrathfully. "Don't speak to me; I would
kill you if I were free, for leading us into this ambush!"

The man, however, urged again by the chief, who raised his pistol
ominously at dad, approached him once more.

"The Albanian chief says that if twenty thousand piastres apiece, or one
hundred thousand piastres in all, are not paid for you by sunset here
to-morrow evening, you shall all be shot in cold blood, and your doom be
on your own heads."

"Tell your chief, or thief, or whatever ruffian he is, that none of us
will pay a penny. Our friends at Athens will miss us, and you'll have
the palikari after you all in hot haste if I'm not back to-night safe."

"The English lord forgets that he left word that he might remain for two
days on the mountains, and his friends will