The Washington times., 1911-11-02
CHAPTER xvIII (continued) !.

doubt there were brave men
among them, but no man likes to look
. down the muscle of two revolvers; more
especially when those revolvers are
gripped by desperate men.
Hands up. gents and iadies!'' re-
Quested Billy. "Upi Way upI We
ain't gcin' through you fer dough, but
were goin' to perform a swift-vanish-
IN act. an you'll all enjoy u better II
en-
He spoke in English. ard 1t was ludi-
brotherhood who undersrood the lam
guage displayed In obsying him, No
doubt. many Of them were armed; but
The man with the drop" has the de-
And thus we continued 10 level our
revolvers at them, shifting the fnuxz.es
instinctively whenever there was sign
OF any sudden movement among our
enemies. Even then l had time to note
the senile terror In Amos Todd's pink
lace as his fat fingers stuck out stiffy,
far above his bald expa nse Of head.
All this paased In tho briefest space
Of time, aand All the. wn,le we were.
more quickly now, edging or backward
way up the slope. Ne ther of US dared
hana. furn 70 , see whether or not we were
Haste was needfu!, for II the breth-
rem could combine for rush we were
lost.
True. such rush might be checked
the advancing crowd. But this we could
not do with danger of stray bullet
striking one Of the several women who
shrank upon the groups farthest out
No. It must be case of marksman-
!, ship; two careful shots apiece, perhaps,
at the leaders before We should be over
whelmed. Still. as things now went, 1t
seemed as though we might yet win the
door before the rush could come.
We were near the top of the incline.
remembered that at the summit was q
narrow level flooring at whose opposite
form, turn the spring-lock. fling open
Flash!
Something whizzed through. the air
and, up the incline toward us. Some
light.
In the.tension everyone had forgotten
leased their hold on him and stood
The bound man, finding sebaste d.
rectly in front of him. had reached for
ward. unobserved. possessed himself OF
the counts stiletto (the same that had
so nearly been Fuorimonte's own lethal
weapon), had at one cut released the
bonds from his wrists. and. still under
cover of the taller mans shoulders, had
hurled the knife with all his force at me.
(There Is an unguessed depth and vol
ume to tho gratitude Of a human heart,
is there not? And the answer to that
question. as Billy would say. is, Yes
there ls not!)
II seems there is a knack in knife
deft at the trick In fact. have seen
Venetian split a three-inch wand at
FnoIinonts Ss "s Was evidently an expert.
and his aim. apparently. had been my
throat. Perhaps. however: the poor
fellows emotions Of g. Srantittude nt TOWARD wa ra
for the knife, hilt forward. caught mo
square on the knuckies.
ffom finger-tip to elbow could bare
" prevent my revolver from falling by
snatchine It with my left hand.
Now. as IN ,he case Of nine men out
Of ten, my left hand Is as awkward as
q child's. I could not hope to shoot
straight with 1t. And I think our foes
must have guessed as much.
< But at the moment the knife struck
me Biliv had taken another swift back
ward step. His heel caught on the rim
of board projecting from the edge CT
the upper platform. the very uuickness
of his motion throwing him forward
He lurched violently. lost his balance,
and instinctivelv threw out both arms
to protect himself from falling head
cat-like on his feet than the ex-pugilist
could not possibly havc averted a fall
As II was. Billy barely saved himself.
But z that aS bsen seTt of spn dn
ming from his grasp. The weapon
hurt downward. struck the incline
once. and rebounded. The whole thing
was practically simultaneous with my
Even as fumbled gawkily with my
pistol. trying to adjust it to my left
hand. Ferata had rushed forward to the
bottom of the slope and In single mo-
fion snatched up Billy's weapon, ieveled
It at me. and pulled the trigger.
sway y You pTSr t,ins
bought It, disremembered to put the
c'tr,dges in 1t tonight when we started
That's It. Angle-face! Click away
real sweet tune on that bum old gum
Billy was right, Ferata's nervous fore
finger was impotentlv jerking the trig-
ger into series Of loud. harmless clicks
Of the hammer on the empty chambers
II was the fattest most farcical anti.
climax on record. And 1t was with this
!. useless bit of steel that Gregg had held
twenty m,raerous men at bay.
"Cuick, Hillvi" comr anded passing
him my revolver. Mines loaded. but
my right arms knocked out. Cover
them while look for the door. And
UhOOt. II you nave 10. ..-..
l whirlcd ahcut (turning my back fol
the first time on our foes) and sought
the thick iron-barred door. II was al
most directly behind me- The lock wai
Of the ordinary spring variety. on 6
heavier scale. There were bolts, also
on the low portal. but, luckily the,
were not draw
n was the matter Of an instant e
wrench back the lock and pull the doc
wide. But that instant was not who'll,
at nv disposal for even as I turned
Ferafa and a dozen OF the others hat
bounded up the incline.
1 suppose the discovery that Billy
pistol was empty robbed them of thei
dread Of mine. At all events, the rusi
we had tried so hard to stave of wa
at last upon US.
I have taken much space in describin,
the foregoing happenings. and ] fear
may have given the impression that
longer time elapsed In their occurring
than was actually the case. As a mat
ter of fact. episode had followed cpl
code In so bewilderinEly swift success
sion that II was not until long after
ward that i was able mentally I,
stra.ehtep out the rapid blur OF nctiol
irto ANYTHING like its proper sequence
The Suburban Handicap is run in
trife over two minutes, vet its recjta
often fills whole page of close news
PAPER type. So II is In describing wha
have set down here.
Three things--no. four-occurred a