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 sturdy 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 principal 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 attitude. 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: