descended through the trap, drawing it over him, went down the steps,
laid them in their place, and, lastly, wondering whether he had soiled
his hands with the black on the top of the house, he ran rapidly
downstairs.

As he ran he could hear the heavy tramp of the soldiers in the street at
the front, and when he reached the lower flights dimly made out the
figure of his mother standing at the bottom step, and stretched out his
hand and caught her arm.

Lady Gowan uttered a cry of horror, and sprang forward into the hall,
facing round to meet her invisible enemy; but she uttered a faint sigh
of relief as her arm was caught again, and she heard the familiar voice
whisper:

"Hush! hush! mother."

"Ah!" she whispered back. "Your father?"

Frank's answer was drowned by a thunderous blow delivered with a
sledge-hammer upon the door close to the lock, and this was followed by
another and another, which raised echoes up the staircase, and brought a
series of hysterical shrieks from the housekeeper's room.

But Lady Gowan paid no heed to either. She caught her son by the arms,
and drew him farther from the door, placed her lips to his ear, and
whispered in an agonised tone:

"Your father?--speak!"

"Got down safe, and gone," whispered back Frank; and as his mother clung
to him a strange thrill of elation ran through his nerves, making him
feel that he was engaged in an adventure full of delirious joy. He felt
that he must shout and cheer to get rid of the intense excitement which
made his blood bubble in his veins, and he was ready for any mad display
in what was like playing some wonderful game, in which, after a
desperate struggle, his side was winning.

"Let them hammer and bang down the door, mother. The idiots! they are
giving him time to get safe away. Oh the fools, the fools! Shall I go
and speak to them?"

"No, no," whispered Lady Gowan, speaking with her lips once more to her
boy's ear, for the noise made was deafening. "Let them take time to
break in, and then we must parley with them, and let them suspect us and
make a regular search. They will waste nearly an hour, Frank."

"Of course they will," cried the boy joyously; "but, I say, mother,
we're not going to put up with this, you know; I'm not going to have you
insulted by these people breaking into the house. I shall show fight."

"No, no, don't do anything imprudent, Frank. We must assume that we
took them for a ruffianly mob who tried