The two lads sprang up the wide steps leading to the floor above, just as the doorway was darkened by a mass of men.  The door at the top of the steps yielded to their rush, the rotten woodwork giving, and the door falling to the ground.  Two or three pistol bullets whizzed by their ears, just as they leapt through the opening.

“Up another floor, Hugh; and easy with the door.”

The door at the top of the next ladder creaked heavily as they pushed it back on its hinges.

“Look about, Hugh, for something to pile against it.”

The shutters of the window were closed, but enough light streamed through the chinks and crevices for them to see dimly.  There was odd rubbish strewn all about, and in one corner a heap of decaying sacks.  To these both rushed, and threw some on the floor by the door, placing their feet on them to keep them firm, just as with a rush the men came against it.  This door was far stronger than the one below, but it gave before the weight.

“The hinges will give,” Hugh exclaimed; but at the moment Rupert passed his thin rapier through one of the chinks of the rough boards which formed it, and a yell was heard on the outside.  The pressure against the door ceased instantly; and Rupert bade Hugh run for some more sacks, while he threw himself prone on them on the ground.

It was well he did so, for, as he expected, a half-dozen pistol shots were heard, and the bullets crashed through the woodwork.

“Keep out of the line of fire, Hugh.”

Hugh did so, and threw down the sacks close to the door.  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.”