Mr. Fern had set his snare with fine tact. In his desperation (for he had, indeed, come to that condition) he was resolved to win or lose all by a single _coup de main_. His statement of his case--so far as it went--was unexaggerated. His rascal improvidence had provided against no contingencies. His gang was mutinous from cold and hunger--most of all from the failure of liquor-supply through the impossibility of communicating with Mr. Breeds of the “Dog and Duck.” Baulked by the unexpected return of the master of “Delsrop”; baulked in his design to “rush” the house at the very outset of his daring swoop upon the estate; out-manœuvred in his attempt to make capital of the hostages that a fickle rogue’s Providence had flung into his arms, he must exercise all his diplomacy of scoundrelism to quiet the rebellion that had broken out in his own ranks. The discovery of the escape of the prisoners was the critical moment of his authority; and it was only when pursuit led to the revelation of the subterranean passage, that he found a new argument to the favour of his fellows, and to the postponement of the sacrifice of his life to their fury. Very noiselessly, he had in person explored the tunnel, and satisfied himself that a guard was stationed at its outlet. The trap also (so it happened at the time) was closed and bolted; and it was evident that this must be forced, at the crucial moment, by means instant and effectual. Now, though he was ignorant of the real numerical strength of the garrison, he could not doubt that so obviously weak a position would be strenuously cared for by the enemy. A single man, indeed, properly posted and armed, might account for his entire gang, one by one, as it issued into the pit through the narrow aperture (the secret of whose revolving stone he had, with superior craft, easily unravelled); and a mere struggle to force this point was therefore out of the question. He would conceive a subtler plan. He would himself venture into the stronghold and would engage its defenders in talk, while Brander and the rest made their silent way under the house to the vault-opening. Here a bag of powder was to be fastened under the trap and fired by a train run up a stick. The sentry would be either killed or disabled by the explosion--the way burst clear for the uprush of his fellows; and, in the terror and confusion that should ensue, he would take the enemy in the rear and complete its demoralization.