fterwards proved not to have been one, Mr Raydon said in a whisper--

"There is the gate."

I stared, but could see nothing till we had gone a few yards further,
when I found that two huge shoulders of the mountain had fallen in, and
blocked the valley, which was narrowed here, as Mr Raydon said, to a
sharply-cut passage of about thirty yards wide. Here we halted, and
were disposed so that a dog could not pass through without being seen,
and for a full hour we remained in utter silence, watching, till, unable
to bear the inaction any longer, Mr Raydon said sharply--

"Forward! Open out! I am afraid there is something wrong below. They
ought to have been up here by this time."

We tramped on again now, still with the same precautions, but making as
much speed as we could after our rest, though our pace was slow on
account of the dense nature of the forest. I cannot tell how long we
had been going downward, but suddenly, just as I was growing weary of
the whole business, and thinking that the men were after all, perhaps,
not here, or that we had come down the wrong valley, my blood rose to
fever-heat again, for Mr Raydon whispered--

"Halt!" and the word ran along to right and left. "Be ready," he
whispered again. And now I heard a faint muttering in front of us,
similar to that which we had made in our progress; and at last, away
among the great tree-trunks dimly seen in the shade, I caught sight of a
man, then of another and another, and now Mr Raydon's voice rang out
hoarsely--

"Halt, or we fire!"

There was a low murmuring from before us, and a bit of a rush, as of men
collecting together, and then a voice roared from among the trees--

"Surrender there, or we will shoot you down to a man."

"Do you hear?" cried Mr Raydon. "Surrender! The game's up, you
scoundrels."

"Mr Raydon," I whispered, excitedly, for I had caught sight of the
advancing party, "don't fire; it's Mr Barker and his men."

"What? Hi! Barker! Is that you?"

"Ay--ay!" came back. "That you, Mr Raydon?"

"Yes, man, yes; where are the enemy?"

"Why, I thought you was them," cried Barker, advancing.

"We thought the same," said Mr Raydon, as he too stepped forward, and
we all stood face to face. "Then they were not here. Or have you
passed them?"

"I don't think--" began Barker.

"Why, I told you so," cried one of the men. "I felt sure I heard
something out to our left among the trees hours ago."

"What?" cried Mr R