At once there was a rush outside. The covered way, which no doubt had sheltered many a thousand Mongolian in the old days, was soon crammed to overflowing, while still more of the mob thronged the stairs. Then with shouts the leaders cleared a patch for the men carrying the tree trunk.

'Rush at the barricade with it,' called the rascally leader. 'Smash it and then fetch out the food which is ours by right. You will know how to deal with the foreign devil and his supporters, my comrades.'

There was a growl from the mob, and then a roar, as the men bearing the tree trunk rushed forward. As for the defenders, they sprang to the loopholes which had been left and awaited the Professor's signal. It came in a moment, for the battering-ram almost levelled the barrier at the first effort.

'Fire on them!' shouted the Professor. 'Pick off every man who attempts to lift the tree. That is where our real danger lies. Once this barrier is down they will be on us; nothing can resist such numbers.'

David and d.i.c.k, with Ho-Hung and his comrades, as well as Chu-Li and his four fellow-soldiers, had before now each chosen an aperture for his weapon, and at once a hot fire was opened on the enemy. Meanwhile every available article was thrown on the barricade to strengthen it, for there were numbers of willing hands amongst the Professor's party. As for the mob outside, half a dozen fell at the first discharge, all of whom bore the ram, while every time a man leaned over to pick it up again he was fired at instantly. In three minutes a round dozen were biting the sand.

'Then let us tear it down with our hands, comrades,' shouted the burly ringleader. 'They can hit one man as he leans to pick this thing up, but they cannot kill us all. Better to eat than to live on starving.'

The words drew a howl from the mob. Those on the stairway were now so pressed and packed together that they could not turn, while the s.p.a.ce below was filled to overflowing. With an angry roar the latter leaped forward close on the heels of their leader, and struggled desperately with one another to come at the barricade. Those who could reach it tore madly at the sawn logs, striving to pull them out of the way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STORMING THE BARRICADE]

'Steady, lads!' called out the Professor, by whose side stood Alphonse, his hat awry, his keen eyes shining. 'If they break through we must make a sortie. I shall lead the way.'

'With Alphonse beside you, monsieur,' cried the Frenchman. 'But I am thinking Ho-Hung can wield a stake, and Jong also. Those two perched on our barricade could deal hard blows to these ruffians, while we at the loopholes could shoot down those who have fire-arms. What says monsieur?'

'That the plan is excellent. Hung! Jong!' He shouted, and at once gave them their instructions. The movement did indeed help the defenders wonderfully, for few of the attackers had fire-arms, and those who had could use them with difficulty only owing to the press. With swinging blows the two Chinamen beat back the mob tearing at the barricade, while the more dangerous of the latter were shot down from the loopholes. Then the Professor again stood before them.

'Good people,' he shouted, so that all could hear, 'I beg of you to retire. You see for yourselves that we are able to oppose you, and already numbers of your brothers have fallen. Let that suffice. Go now before worse happens.'

For one whole minute, perhaps, there was silence outside, while not a man moved. No doubt the opposition had taken the mob by surprise, for elsewhere they had been able to rob and murder without danger or difficulty. The sight of wounded and fallen men unnerved a few, and made them wish that the stairway were not so crammed and that retreat were possible. But deep embedded in the hearts of the majority was the knowledge that they were hungry, and that failure here meant starvation.

It needed, therefore, but a tiny spark to kindle their courage once more. The rascally fellow who had so nearly hit the Professor on two occasions was still at hand, and he it was who quickly had them once more racing for the barrier.

'It is a dodge,' he shouted. 'Believe not the foreign devil. Pull the barricade aside and you have every bag of food that belongs to these people. Hesitate now, and go on your way. What will happen? You will starve. You will leave your bones by the road. The dogs and the wolves will come and feed off your carcases. Forward, then. There is food, and plenty of it behind that barricade.'

He led a silent host at once against the defenders, a host frantic with its woes, rendered as fierce as any pack of wolves by its privations.

And in a trice it seemed that it must succeed. Even the l.u.s.ty blows of the two Chinamen and the shots of those at the loopholes failed to keep it back. Already a foot or more of the barricade had toppled over, while a dozen of the men outside had again seized the battering-ram. And then, so fickle and so changing is fortune in such matters, a small affair turned the scale in favour of the defenders. The excitement of those who were unable, because of their position on the stairway, to join in the contest was so intense that they struggled and pushed their way downward in spite of all difficulties till the covered way was crammed.

But still they came till even those struck by the bullets from the loopholes could not fall on account of the press. Then someone above bellowed a warning.

'I see men coming!' he shouted. 'I see soldiers--they are galloping this way; they will cut us to pieces.'

Instantly there was a rush for the stairway. Two hundred and more frantic people fought to be the first away. They tore at one another with as much ferocity as they had displayed when attacking the barricade, and those who were strongest, or who had taken up the most commanding positions, prevailed. Men were dragged down and trodden underfoot, an eddy as it were on the stairway caused the ma.s.s thronging every step to heave backward, and at once numbers lost their balance and fell, helped to their death by those who were nearest. Knives flashed here and there. Men snarled at one another. Altogether it was a horrible and terrifying spectacle. And the movement itself proved to be as unnecessary as it was horrible in its results, for the same man appeared above once more.

'It was a false alarm,' he shouted. 'Stop, comrades, there is nothing to fear. They were not soldiers; they were men like ourselves who had stolen ponies doubtless from the last village. Stop or you will all be crushed and killed.'

Deep and bitter were the voices of those who had survived. They turned again, and slowly descended where a moment before they had struggled to mount And catching sight of David standing at the barricade they set up a howl which showed something more than mere desperation induced by the pangs of hunger. There was hate in their tones. The matter had now become a personal one as between them and the defenders.

'We warn you people down below that we will kill you all,' shouted the same leader. 'We will kill you slowly, making you suffer for what you have done. Stop, my comrades. I have a plan to propose. Let some rest here and watch for us; we will be back ere many minutes have pa.s.sed.'

He raced up the stairway accompanied by a mob, leaving the Professor and his party to wonder what movement would now be attempted.

'Perhaps another battering-ram,' suggested the Professor.

'Or these rascals will supply themselves with hooks with which they will the easier be able to reach the logs on our barricade,' chimed in Alphonse.

'Or perhaps it's worse,' said David slowly. 'I wish we had shot that rascal, for he is capable of the worst mischief. Ah! see them! I guessed what they were up to. They are going to smoke us out.'

There could be little doubt as to the intentions of the mob. They had seized bundles of fodder kept on the level sand above for the use of the ponies, and a couple of dozen of the men were bearing these down the stairway, while the same ma.s.s followed on their heels, shouting excitedly, and shaking their fists in the direction of the defenders.

'Put them down against the barricade in a heap,' called their leader.

'Be not afraid of the foreign devils, for harm will not come to you.

When the bundles are placed I will fire them.'

'_Parbleu_, I think not,' exclaimed Alphonse, smiling grimly, for he had understood. 'Monsieur, with your permission I will shoot this man.'

Shoot him the Frenchman did. His bullet caused the rascally leader to sway from side to side and to grip at the air. Then with a shriek he came bounding forward, and, clambering the outside of the barricade, attempted to enter. There was a flash as d.i.c.k Cartwell ended the matter.

'Look out! There's a fellow coming along with a torch,' called out the Professor. 'Shoot every man who attempts to light those bales.'

But in spite of every effort a cunning fellow armed with flint and steel managed to set fire to a bunch of straw which he picked from the ground and held behind his fellows. Then with a quick jerk he threw it forward, causing it to fall at the edge of the piled-up bales of fodder. Next second a sheet of flame was sweeping up to the ancient roof of the covered way, while, owing to dampness in the bales, a dense smoke was given off, and began to penetrate the apartment occupied by the defenders. Indeed, in a few seconds they were coughing loudly, while every member of the party was forced to retire as far as possible from the flames. Death from suffocation, if not from burning, stared them in the face. David and his friends were in a horrible dilemma.

CHAPTER XX

The Secret of the Ruins

Blank despair was written on the faces of the Professor and his party as columns of suffocating smoke were swept into their quarters; for all realised that in a very short s.p.a.ce of time they would be smothered.

More than that, the flames had now got such a hold of the bales of straw and fodder that the heat was terrible, driving every member of the party into the farthest corner, and even causing the enemy outside hastily to retreat up the stairway. And there, at the summit, looking down into the excavations which exposed this small portion of the ancient ruins they gloated over the foreign devils and their helpers, shrieking in their mad delight, and bawling every insult that their degraded minds could think of.

'I fear it looks like a case with us,' gasped the Professor, tying a handkerchief about his mouth and nose, an example which the others were swift to follow. 'We're in a horrible trap, with no way out of it, I fear.'

'Unless, monsieur, we could dash at the barrier and kick all the bales aside,' said Alphonse, coughing violently, for the exceeding pungency of the smoke made breathing difficult and speech next door to impossible.

'I am ready to make the attempt. It is better than being scorched here in this corner.'

At once he started forward, and with him d.i.c.k Cartwell, both eager to do something. But who could face such dense smoke, or the hot flames which poured in over the top of the barrier? Not Alphonse, even with all his dash and pluck. Nor d.i.c.k, with his reckless disregard of the consequences.

'It is sad but inevitable then,' declared Alphonse, with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. 'Monsieur, I have the honour to bid you farewell. I lose a good and generous master.'

'And I a brave and willing servant. But, Alphonse, where is Monsieur David? I have not seen him since we retired from the barrier, and the smoke is so thick now over there that one can see nothing. Where is the lad? I begin to feel anxious.'

It was like the Professor to think of his comrades at such a time. But the question brought a shout from d.i.c.k.

'He's over here, sir,' he called out 'As soon as they fired the bales I saw him dart back into the room, and couldn't imagine why. Running away from the thick of an attack isn't like him. David, where are you?'

'Here,' came the crisp and half-stifled answer, while the figure of our hero loomed darkly before them, his face m.u.f.fled in the half of a garment which he had secured from somewhere. 'Come along this wall of the room with me. I realised when they fired that heap of stuff that our position would be untenable, and went to the men who have been working.

They have managed to break a hole through the wall, and one has just slipped to the other side. Of course, if the place is filled with sand we can do nothing. I have hopes, though, that it will be clear, for how else could he have been able to pa.s.s through.'

Choking and coughing the party crept along the wall, keeping close to the base; for the smoke rose to the ceiling, and the latter being of great height gave it s.p.a.ce in which to distribute itself. But in spite of that, the supply of air down below was small, to say the least of it.

They had hardly proceeded more than ten feet when there came a cry of triumph from a point just in front of them, while the click of a metal instrument was heard.

'Come quickly. Come, Excellencies,' called the voice of the head man who controlled the excavators. 'Our comrade reports that the far side is quite clear. Some one has been at work there before us. Let us pa.s.s through at once, else we shall be suffocated.'

The words brought them rushing forward, and a gust of wind happening at that moment to sweep the smoke and flames away from the room, all saw that a hole had been cut through the wall, which being ma.s.sively built, had resisted the efforts of a number of men armed with crow-bars for some time, but once the first stones were removed the rest was easy. The Professor took in the situation at a glance.