Part 40 (2/2)
”That's what you call wit, I suppose!” retorted Ned, as he now, struggling into his inexpressibles, felt his way into the outer cave.
”What, ho, Mac!” cried he, as he went, ”stir those bobbins of thine, which thou art pleased to call legs; strike a light, and be d---d to you!”
”A light for you,” said Tomlinson, profanely, as he reluctantly left his couch, ”will indeed be a 'light to lighten the Gentiles!'”
”Why, Mac, Mac!” shouted Ned, ”why don't you answer? faith, I think the Scot's dead!”
”Seize your men!--Yield, sirs!” cried a stern, sudden voice from the gloom; and at that instant two dark lanterns were turned, and their light streamed full upon the astounded forms of Tomlinson and his gaunt comrade! In the dark shade of the background four or five forms were also indistinctly visible; and the ray of the lanterns glimmered on the blades of cutla.s.ses and the barrels of weapons still less easily resisted.
Tomlinson was the first to recover his self-possession. The light just gleamed upon the first step of the stairs leading to the stables, leaving the rest in shadow. He made one stride to the place beside the cart, where, we have said, lay some of the robbers' weapons; he had been antic.i.p.ated,--the weapons were gone. The next moment Tomlinson had sprung up the steps.
”Lovett! Lovett! Lovett!” shouted he.
The captain, who had followed his comrades into the cavern, was already in the grasp of two men. From few ordinary mortals, however, could any two be selected as fearful odds against such a man as Clifford,--a man in whom a much larger share of sinews and muscle than is usually the lot even of the strong had been hardened, by perpetual exercise, into a consistency and iron firmness which linked power and activity into a union scarcely less remarkable than that immortalized in the glorious beauty of the sculptured gladiator. His right hand is upon the throat of one a.s.sailant; his left locks, as in a vice, the wrist of the other; you have scarcely time to breathe! The former is on the ground, the pistol of the latter is wrenched from his grip, Clifford is on the step; a ball--another--whizzes by him; he is by the side of the faithful Augustus!
”Open the secret door!” whispered Clifford to his friend; ”I will draw up the steps alone.”
Scarcely had he spoken, before the steps were already, but slowly, ascending beneath the desperate strength of the robber. Meanwhile Ned was struggling, as he best might, with two st.u.r.dy officers, who appeared loath to use their weapons without an absolute necessity, and who endeavoured, by main strength, to capture and detain their antagonist.
”Look well to the door!” cried the voice of the princ.i.p.al officer, ”and hang out more light!”
Two or three additional lanterns were speedily brought forward; and over the whole interior of the cavern a dim but sufficient light now rapidly circled, giving to the scene and to the combatants a picturesque and wild appearance.
The quick eye of the head-officer descried in an instant the rise of the steps, and the advantage the robbers were thereby acquiring. He and two of his men threw themselves forward, seized the ladder, if so it may be called, dragged it once more to the ground, and ascended. But Clifford, grasping with both hands the broken shaft of a cart that lay in reach, received the foremost invader with a salute that sent him prostrate and senseless back among his companions. The second shared the same fate; and the stout leader of the enemy, who, like a true general, had kept himself in the rear, paused now in the middle of the steps, dismayed alike by the reception of his friends and the athletic form towering above, with raised weapons and menacing att.i.tude. Perhaps that moment seemed to the judicious Mr. Nabbem more favourable to parley than to conflict. He cleared his throat, and thus addressed the foe:
”You, sir, Captain Lovett, alias Howard, alias Jackson, alias Cavendish, alias Solomons, alias Devil,--for I knows you well, and could swear to you with half an eye, in your clothes or without,--you lay down your club there, and let me come alongside of you, and you'll find me as gentle as a lamb; for I've been used to gemmen all my life, and I knows how to treat 'em when I has 'em!”
”But if I will not let you 'come alongside of me,' what then?”
”Why, I must send one of these here pops through your skull, that's all!”
”Nay, Mr. Nabbem, that would be too cruel! You surely would not harm one who has such an esteem for you? Don't you remember the manner in which I brought you off from Justice Burnflat, when you were accused, you know whether justly or--”
”You're a liar, Captain!” cried Nabbem, furiously, fearful that something not meet for the ears of his companions should transpire.
”You knows you are! Come down, or let me mount; otherwise I won't be 'sponsible for the consequences!”
Clifford cast a look over his shoulder. A gleam of the gray daylight already glimmered through a c.h.i.n.k in the secret door, which Tomlinson had now unbarred and was about to open.
”Listen to me, Mr. Nabbem,” said he, ”and perhaps I may grant what you require! What would you do with me if you had me?”
”You speaks like a sensible man now,” answered Nabbem; ”and that's after my own heart. Why, you sees, Captain, your time is come, and you can't s.h.i.+lly-shally any longer. You have had your full swing; your years are up, and you must die like a man! But I gives you my honour as a gemman, that if you surrenders, I'll take you to the justice folks as tenderly as if you were made of cotton.”
”Give way one moment,” said Clifford, ”that I may plant the steps firmer for you.”
Nabbem retreated to the ground; and Clifford, who had, good-naturedly enough, been unwilling unnecessarily to damage so valuable a functionary, lost not the opportunity now afforded him. Down thundered the steps, clattering heavily among the other officers, and falling like an avalanche on the shoulder of one of the arresters of Long Ned.
Meanwhile Clifford sprang after Tomlinson through the aperture, and found himself--in the presence of four officers, conducted by the shrewd MacGrawler. A blow from a bludgeon on the right cheek and temple of Augustus felled that hero. But Clifford bounded over his comrade's body, dodged from the stroke aimed at himself, caught the blow aimed by another a.s.sailant in his open hand, wrested the bludgeon from the officer, struck him to the ground with his own weapon, and darting onward through the labyrinth of the wood, commenced his escape with a step too fleet to allow the hope of a successful pursuit.
CHAPTER XXIX.
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