"Traps," once more repeated the frightened ruffian, and a dozen voices demanded where they were, while three or four men opened the shutters of the windows to see if the building was attacked on the outside. Two or three of the most timid disappeared from the room through a small door, which we afterwards learned led through a subterranean passage to a deserted mine, and from thence escape was easy by means of the shaft.
"Where are they?" roared a dozen voices all at once; and as the ruffians asked, we had the disagreeable pleasure of seeing long knives unsheathed and two or three pistols drawn; but even during the confusion we managed to approach the door through which we had entered, and which we prayed to leave without a severe wound.
"There they go—we are betrayed—down with them," were the cries that we heard; but to our satisfaction a man whom we had not counted on rushed between us and the crowd, his voice, clear and ringing, being heard above the din.
"Put up your knives," he shouted, "or you'll bring trouble on me and my house. Let the gentlemen go—it's nothin' but a fadlin' cove they've got, and not a bushman. For the honor of the 'Cricket' don't spill blood here," pleaded Dan Brian, the proprietor.
"Move on," whispered the inspector, "and don't relax your hold of the prisoner. Keep your pistols in your pockets, and don't use them until I set an example."
"It is selling us, Dan Brian, you are," cried half a dozen voices, and there were shouts and oaths of rage at the thought.
"'Pon my honor, I'm not," reiterated Dan; "I never sold a pal in my life, and, by the blessing of God, I won't. It's a poor devil they've got now, of no account to any of us."
"He's a thief, and in the hands of 'Traps,'" shouted one, "and if we let him go without a blow, none of us will be safe."
"That's so," yelled the crowd, and the most violent pushed Dan aside, or attempted to, for the purpose of getting at us.
"We will listen to nothing," roared the ruffians, "until the poor devil is free, and then we will talk until daylight, if it will please the police."