ough.
They had time to get away."

Sir Edward and his son entered the murk, and had to feel their way, and
halted.

"Light torches," cried Mark: and half-a-dozen were lit and passed in,
when once more the party advanced, expecting to be attacked, but the
blast had produced a scare, though it had done no serious harm, save
tearing down a few stones, and instead of attacking, the marauders stood
on their defence in the place familiar to Mark and some of the men.

There was again the same bristling array of pikes in the opening; and
after a renewed summons to surrender, the old miner proceeded coolly to
prepare a second bag of powder.

This was fired, but the explosion did not take place till some time
after the defenders of the cavern had retreated; and for a while the
passage was so stifling with the fumes that it was impossible to go on,
so the party had to draw back to allow them to be dissipated.

At last it was deemed prudent to proceed, and once more the advance was
ordered, the men eagerly obeying; and with torches adding their smoke to
that already hanging in the gloomy cracks and vaults, they pressed on
till once more the way was blocked.

It was no array of spear-points in a narrow passage, but in this case
the solid blocking of a wall of stone, built-up with care, the stones
well wedged in, a narrow opening left for the retreat of the defenders
having been filled up since their last retreat, and the wonder to those
who examined it was that it had been so quickly secured.

The choice of position, though, had been well made, for the passage was
not above four feet wide at this point, and the roof had sunk till it
was in this particular spot only five in height.

Once more the powder was brought forward by Dummy, the bag laid close to
the bottom stones, the fuse added, and lit, and the party retired to a
safe distance, to wait until the powder had swept the barrier away.

The explosion was long in coming, and when it did, with a mighty roar,
an hour had to be passed before another advance was made, but no farther
than the wall, which was found apparently quite uninjured, though the
powder had brought down a huge mass from the roof.

"Pull it down," said Sir Edward impatiently, and a couple of the men--
there was no room for more--attacked the well-fitted stones, but only
for one to start back with a cry of rage and pain, his hand to his side.

"Hurt?" cried Mark excitedly, and he ran to the man's aid,