Several
times he ran backwards and forwards across the room, the assailants
still firing through the door. Then Rupert leapt up, and the pile
of sacks were rapidly heaped against the door, just as the men
outside, in hopes that they had killed the defenders, made another
rush against it.
This time, however, the pile of sacks had given it strength and
solidity, and it hardly shook under the assault. Then came volleys
of curses and imprecations, in German, from outside; and then the
lads could hear the steps descend the stairs, and a loud and angry
consultation take place below.
"Open the shutters, Hugh, and let us see where we are."
It was a chamber of some forty feet square, and, like those below
it, of considerable height. It was like the rest of the mill, built
of rough pine, black with age. It had evidently been used as a
granary.
"This is a nice trap we have fallen into, Hugh, and I doubt me if
Lord Fairholm ever saw the letter with his name upon it which lured
me here. However, that is not the question now; the thing is how we
are to get out of the trap. How many were there outside, do you
think?"
"There seemed to me about a dozen, Master Rupert, but I got merely
a blink at them."
"If it were not for their pistols we might do something, Hugh; but
as it is, it is hopeless."
Looking out from the window they saw that it was over the great
water wheel, whose top was some fifteen feet below them, with the
water running to waste from the inlet, which led from the reservoir
higher up the valley.
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