it
was locked, and the key in the pocket of the doorkeeper, who had made
his escape from the room in company with Dan.

I almost uttered a groan of agony when I made the discovery, and to add
to the perplexity of our situation, the ruffians must have understood
our case, and known that the key was never left in the lock, for they
uttered a discordant and ironical hoot, and then a shout of sardonic
laughter.

"For Heaven's sake, don't be all night in getting that door open," cried
Fred, nervously, and I will confess that I also partook of the same
complaint.

"Now for a rush--cut them to pieces," exclaimed many voices; but I
observed that the cries came from those who were farthest from us, and
out of the reach of our pistols, which we were forced to display, in
hope of keeping the robbers at a respectful distance.

"Is the door unbarred?" asked Mr. Brown, turning half round, and
exposing his side to the knives of the crowd, and quick as thought, a
man sprang forward to begin the work of bloodshed; but sudden as were
his movements, they were anticipated, for I raised the heavy bar, which
I had not relinquished, and let it fall upon his head with crushing
force.

The poor devil fell at our feet without uttering a groan, although many
spasmodic twitchings of his nerves showed that he was not killed
outright His long knife narrowly missed the side of the inspector, and
for the first attempt at our annihilation, it was not to be despised.

The wretches uttered yells of rage when they saw their comrade fall, but
none seemed inclined to assume the leadership and begin the attack in
earnest.

Not one of their motions escaped us, and as long as they were disposed
to brandish their knives at a distance, we did not choose to carry
matters to extremities; but change of tactics was suddenly resorted to
on the part of our opponents, that placed us in no little peril.

All the tumblers, bottles, and decanters of the bar were token
possession of by the savage scoundrels, and the first intimation that we
had of the fact was the crushing of a bottle (empty, of course--they
were not the sort of men to throw away liquor of any kind) against the
door, just above our heads.

[Illustration: "Now for a rush--cut them to pieces!" exclaimed many
voices: but I observed that the cries came from those who were furthest
from us and out of the reach of our pistols, which we were forced to
display, in hope of keeping the robbers at a respe