"Stoop here--a little to the right--to the right once more--now through this narrow opening on the left. Only one can pass at a time: you first." Mark led, and passed through a rift, to see a feeble glow upon his left, where a candle was stuck against the rock, and beneath it lay a figure, very dimly-seen, while, apparently coming through an opening farther on, they heard the low hoarse sound of voices; and words came suggesting that the speakers were engaged in some game of chance. Minnie withdrew her hands from her protectors, and hurried to kneel down by the figure in the corner, Sir Edward and Mark following, to bend over the prisoner. "Too weak," he panted--"I tried to come. Eden! A strange meeting, oh mine enemy! God forgive us all the past; and if when you--come back--a conqueror--for the sake of Him who died--protect my child.--Minnie!" he cried faintly, and the girl sank beside him with a wail. Sir Edward went down on one knee, sought for, and took his enemy's hand. "Can you hear?" he whispered. A feeble pressure was the answer. "Trust me. I will. Now we are in complete ignorance of the place, and must be guided so as to succeed." "You need no guidance," said Sir Morton feebly. "Cross yonder--there is an opening: follow the narrow passage for twenty yards, and there is a big chamber-like grotto, and upon your right an archway leading into another smaller chamber. The enemy--are there. You have them as in a trap." Sir Morton Darley's voice grew a little firmer as he proceeded, and when he, ceased there was a low murmur of satisfaction, and the men's faces, dimly-seen, were turned to Sir Edward for the order to advance. "Lay your pikes in that corner," he whispered. "It will be close quarters. Draw your swords." The order had hardly been executed when there came suddenly angry shouts, sounding hollow and strange, multiplied as they were by reverberations. "They know we are here, father," whispered Mark excitedly. But at that moment came distinctly the words: "He cheated! A thief!" and the clashing of swords. "Forward!" said Sir Edward, and closely followed by his son and Nick Garth, whose breath came thickly, he followed the directions given by Sir Morton Darley, guided more by the sounds, to reach the entrance to a natural chamber, with high Gothic roof and walls glittering with crystals, which reflected the light of half--a--dozen candles stuck here and there. Mark saw all this at a glance, as he grasped the fact that the inmates had broken into two parties, and were contending so fiercely that for a few moments they did not see the doorway crowded with angry countenances, and were only brought to a knowledge of their peril by the rush that was made by all but two of Sir Edward's men, who stayed back to guard the entry and cut off the escape of any who tried to get away.