?

"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.

Instantly a jagged line of flashes leaped across the breast of the
darkness, accompanied by a detonation truly terrible. Each gun with its
echoes, in those cavernous solitudes, thundered like a whole park of
artillery: what, then, was the effect of the volley? The patriots were
themselves appalled by it. The mountain trembled, and a gusty roar swept
through its shuddering chambers, throbbing and pulsing long after the
smoke of the discharge had cleared away.

Pomp laughed quietly, while Withers exclaimed, "By the Etarnal! if I
didn't fancy the hull ruf of the mountain had caved in!"

"Load!" said Captain Grudd, sternly.

The rebels advancing over the rocks had suddenly disappeared, having
either fallen in the crevices or scrambled back up the bank while hidden
from view by the smoke. The chain descending the tree had broken; those
near the ground leaped down or slid, while those above seemed seized by
a wild impulse to climb back with all haste to the summit of the wall. A
few threw away their guns, which fell upon the heads of those below. At
the same time those below might have been seen scampering to places of
shelter behind rocks and trees.

If ever panic were excusable, this surely was. Since the patriots were
terrified by their own firing, we need not wonder at the alarm of the
rebels. Some had seen the flashes sever the darkness, and their comrades
fall; while all had felt the earthquake and the thundering. To those at
the entrance it had seemed that these were the jaws and throat of a
monster mountain-huge, which at their approach spat flame and bellowed.

"Now is our time! Clear them out!" said Grudd.

"Rush in and finish them with the bayonet!" said Stackridge. Six of the
guns had bayonets, and his was one of them.

"Not yet!" said Pomp. "They will fire on you from above. We must first
attend to that. Shall I show you? Then do as I do!"

Instinctively they accepted his lead. Loading his piece, he ran forward
until, himself concealed under the brow of the cavern, he could see the
rebels in the tree and on the cliff.

"Once more! All together!" he said, taking aim. "Give the word,
captain!"

The men knelt among the loosely tumbled rocks, which served at once as a
breastwork and as rests for their guns. The projecting roof of the cave
was over them; through the obscure opening they pointed their pieces.
Above them, in the full light, were the frightened confederates,