“Then we’ll fight,” cried Mr Burne furiously. “I never would and I never will be swindled. Ransom indeed! Why, confound it all, Preston! is this real, or is it a cock-and-bull story told in a book?”
“It is reality, Burne, sure enough,” said the professor calmly; “and I feel with you, that I would sooner fight than give up a shilling; but, cowardly as it may seem, I fear that we must give up.”
“Give up? Never, sir. I am an Englishman,” cried the old lawyer.
“But look at our position. We are completely at their mercy. Here we are in the centre of this half-moon curve, and the scoundrels hold the two horns in force.”
“Then we’ll dash up the mountain.”
“It is impossible, excellency,” said Yussuf.
“Then we’ll go downwards.”
“To death, Burne?” said the professor smiling.
“Confound it all!” cried Mr Burne, “we are in a complete trap. Here, you, Yussuf, this is your doing, and you are in league with these rascals to rob us.”
“Excellency!”