wail.

Sir Edward went down on one knee, sought for, and took his enemy's hand.

"Can you hear?" he whispered.

A feeble pressure was the answer.

"Trust me. I will. Now we are in complete ignorance of the place, and
must be guided so as to succeed."

"You need no guidance," said Sir Morton feebly. "Cross yonder--there is
an opening: follow the narrow passage for twenty yards, and there is a
big chamber-like grotto, and upon your right an archway leading into
another smaller chamber. The enemy--are there. You have them as in a
trap."

Sir Morton Darley's voice grew a little firmer as he proceeded, and when
he, ceased there was a low murmur of satisfaction, and the men's faces,
dimly-seen, were turned to Sir Edward for the order to advance.

"Lay your pikes in that corner," he whispered. "It will be close
quarters. Draw your swords."

The order had hardly been executed when there came suddenly angry
shouts, sounding hollow and strange, multiplied as they were by
reverberations.

"They know we are here, father," whispered Mark excitedly. But at that
moment came distinctly the words:

"He cheated! A thief!" and the clashing of swords.

"Forward!" said Sir Edward, and closely followed by his son and Nick
Garth, whose breath came thickly, he followed the directions given by
Sir Morton Darley, guided more by the sounds, to reach the entrance to a
natural chamber, with high Gothic roof and walls glittering with
crystals, which reflected the light of half--a--dozen candles stuck here
and there.

Mark saw all this at a glance, as he grasped the fact that the inmates
had broken into two parties, and were contending so fiercely that for a
few moments they did not see the doorway crowded with angry
countenances, and were only brought to a knowledge of their peril by the
rush that was made by all but two of Sir Edward's men, who stayed back
to guard the entry and cut off the escape of any who tried to get away.

The encounter was short and fierce, Sir Edward's men dashing forward
like a wedge, striking with all their might; and at the end of a couple
of minutes' savage encounter, the mercenaries fighting like rats at bay,
there was a terrible silence, broken only by muttered curses and groans,
while eight men stood erect, half of whom had cast away their swords and
fought with their miners' picks.

The scene was ghastly, as shown by two only of the candles, the rest
having been knocked down in the struggl