By this time it was getting dark.
"What'll be the end of this, Master Rupert?
We could stand a siege for a week, but they'd hardly try that." "What's that ?" Rupert said.

"There's some one at the door again." They came back, but all was quiet.

Listening attentively, however, they heard a creaking, as of someone silently descending the stairs.

For some time all was quiet, except that they could hear movements in the lower story of the mill.

Presently Rupert grasped Hugh's arm.
"Do you smell anything, Hugh ?" "Yes, sir, I smell a smoke." "The scoundrels have set the mill on fire, Hugh." In another minute or two the smell became stronger, and then wreaths of smoke could be seen curling up through the crevices in the floor.
"Run through the other rooms, Hugh; let us see if there is any means of getting down." There were three other rooms, but on opening the shutters they found in each case a sheer descent of full forty feet to the ground, there being no outhouses whose roofs would afford them a means of descent.
"We must rush downstairs, Hugh.