Part 38 (1/2)

”Now,” said Chester, ”to your posts. We don't want to be caught unguarded.”

All took the places a.s.signed them and examined their weapons. An hour pa.s.sed. Then Chester, peering through the window, exclaimed:

”Here they come!”

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE FIGHT IN THE HOUSE.

”I'm ready for them!” shouted Ivan, from his position behind the broken door.

He stood well back in the darkness, out of sight from beyond the house.

All was quiet and dark within, for with the appearance of the first of the enemy Chester had extinguished the light. The figures of the approaching Bulgarians were plainly visible to Chester and Helen through the windows. Ivan and Colonel Anderson, of course, could not see them, although they would have been visible to the former had he a mind to take a chance and expose himself to their view.

As the men approached, Chester counted them. Then he announced:

”Thirteen, I make them.”

”My count, too,” agreed Helen from her window.

There was not a tremor in her voice now and she seemed totally unlike the frightened girl Chester had first seen. She held her revolver steadily in her right hand, a pile of ammunition heaped up in the window sill before her.

The men came on briskly, absolutely unaware of the rude welcome that awaited them.

”Let them get close enough so we can't miss, then I'll hold a parley with them,” said Chester.

When the men were less than fifty yards from the house, Chester raised his voice and called out sternly in Russian:

”Halt there!”

The Bulgarians halted in their tracks and gazed about in surprise. To the best of their knowledge there could be no one in the house but the girl, and this sudden hail in a male voice made them pause.

”What do you want here?” demanded Chester from his shelter.

There was a hurried consultation among the enemy; then one man called:

”We want to get in.”

”You can't get in,” returned Chester calmly.

There was a roar of laughter from without.

”Did you hear that?” said one. ”He says we can't get in.” The man called to Chester: ”And who is going to stop us?”

”You'll find there are enough of us here for that purpose,” replied the lad evenly. ”I warn you we'll shoot the next step forward you take.”

Again those without held a consultation and Chester could barely make out the trend of the conversation.

”Perhaps they are too many for us,” said one.