'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 mass 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 Dick 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.