“Fall back, lads; fall back,” said Wildfire Ned; “get into the house again, and let us bar the doors.”
This was quickly done, and greatly to Master Tim’s annoyance, for he was now shut out.
With the nimbleness of a cat he climbed up the water pipe into a chamber window.
He could not get in very well, and hung outside for some moments, dangling just above the heads of the Skeleton Crew below.
Ned pulled him in, however, and warded off several vicious blows aimed at Tim, which, had they struck him, must have killed him on the spot.
“We are safe now for a time,” said the innkeeper, bravely; “but I fear they will burn us out. We shall be roasted alive.”
Tim heard this remark, and was seized with a wild frenzy.
He threw chairs and crockery out upon the heads of those below, who, now very numerous, were clamouring at and endeavouring to burst in the door.
“Set fire to the house,” said Death-wing, who had now arrived. “Set fire to the house at once; they will soon cry for quarter, but give them none; as they rush out, kill them on the spot. We’ll soon make them surrender.”
“Never,” said Wildfire Ned, at an open window. “Never!”