ugh, hairy hand was raised to the cross-bar
which secured the door, and, at the first touch, there was a low,
rustling sound within the building.

Serge and Marcus exchanged glances again, while the dog crouched as if
about to spring.

Directly after, the bar was loosened, and fell with a clang, the door
was dragged open from within, and the prisoners made a simultaneous rush
to escape, but only to fall back with a despairing yell, for the great
dog bounded at them, and the old soldier and his young master closed in,
to fill up the door and step forward.

"Stop outside, Lupe, my lad," said the old soldier, quietly; and the dog
turned back to his former position and crouched once more, while the
door was shut from the inside, the six boys backing to the far side,
beyond the great stone hewn-out press, empty now, dry and clean, for the
time of grape harvest was not yet.

"Now then, my fine fellows," growled Serge; "you want to fight, do you?"

"We want to go," half whimpered the one who acted as spokesman.

"Oh, yes, you want to go," said the old soldier; "of course. Well, you
shall go soon, but you wanted to fight young Marcus here, and you didn't
play fair."

"Never touched him till he came at us," cried another.

"So I suppose," said Serge. "Very hard on you! Six nice boys!
Interfered, did he, when you were breaking down the vines and stealing
the grapes?"

"They warn't ripe," whimpered another.

"Then they ought to have been, seeing that you wanted them," cried
Serge, indignantly, while Marcus laughed. "But as they weren't ripe, of
course, it made you cross, and you began to fight young Marcus here."

None of the boys spoke, but gazed longingly at the door.

"Ah! You see it ain't fastened inside," said Serge, mockingly; "but it
is fastened outside with dog's teeth. I wouldn't advise you to try to
get out, because our dog, Lupus, doesn't like boys, and he's hungry.
Nothing he'd like better than to eat such a chap as one of you. But you
know that, and you wouldn't have come, only you'd seen me go off to the
forest with him to herd up the young swine. Didn't know that we should
be back so soon. You see, the young swine were just at the edge."

"You'd better not touch us, old Serge," cried the biggest lad, in a
whining tone. "You touch me and see if my father don't mark you!"

"I'm not going to touch you, boy," replied the herdsman. "I've done all
I wanted to you for breaking down my grape poles