“By not stirring, my good Porthos.”
“Well! we won’t stir, then; but when they are all together—”
“Then leave it to me, I have an idea.”
“If it is so, and your idea proves a good one—and your idea is most likely to be good—I am satisfied.”
“To your ambuscade, Porthos, and count how many enter.”
“But you, what will you do?”
“Don’t trouble yourself about me; I have a task to perform.”
“I think I hear shouts.”
“It is they! To your post. Keep within reach of my voice and hand.”
Porthos took refuge in the second compartment, which was in darkness, absolutely black. Aramis glided into the third; the giant held in his hand an iron bar of about fifty pounds weight. Porthos handled this lever, which had been used in rolling the bark, with marvelous facility. During this time, the Bretons had pushed the bark to the beach. In the further and lighter compartment, Aramis, stooping and concealed, was busy with some mysterious maneuver. A command was given in a loud voice. It was the last order of the captain commandant. Twenty-five men jumped from the upper rocks into the first compartment of the grotto, and having taken their ground, began to fire. The echoes shrieked and barked, the hissing balls seemed actually to rarefy the air, and then opaque smoke filled the vault.