Part 5 (1/2)
”Show ht help her pace, he ran with her, their footsteps resounding along the silent street
As they ran, he tried to get a better view of her face, but in vain
He noticed that her cloak, which flapped outith every step she took, revealed a rich white skirt beneath, and there was the rustle of silk She kept up bravely with hie in his company She led him round two corners, across a dark square, and to the open door of a house in a sht up the stairs to the first floor”
Ellerey released his hold of the girl; indeed, she pulled her hand away that sheto the rescue, and, as he touched the stairs, he heard the door close with a loud reverberating slam behind him
”Quickly!” she cried after him
The house was dark and quiet, doubly quiet it seemed now that the door had closed Not a sound came from the rooms above, as Ellerey went up the stairs If ht, he had surely come too late
He had reached the top of the stairs, had stretched out his hand to feel his way by the wall, and had paused to listen for a sound or to discern a gliuide him, when suddenly the air about him seemed to break into life, and before he had ti ars In an instant Ellerey had grasped one man in the darkness, and kicked hi down the stairs, uttering curses as he struck the balustrade heavily,point Another received his heel squarely in the face, and dropped with a thud upon the floor, a thud that almost had the sound of finality in it Meanwhile the man he had seized wrenched hi round Ellerey's waist, obviously to prevent his getting at any weapon he ht carry Ellerey strained every nerve to free hiet his back to the wall, striking out right and left, now hitting aa heavy bloeen eyes he could not see, anon beating the air only How many his adversaries were he could not deter i bodies, and heavy blohich were, for the most part, wide of the mark Every moment Ellerey expected to be his last; expected to feel the sharp thrust of a blade, or to fall into sudden oblivion before the sound of the revolver shot had ti, being slowly spent by the odds against him Why did thesea co him too severely? Indeed, it seehtened woht that he could have been such a fool, that so transparent a device should have deceived him, maddened hi to drag his assailants with hi hi his liberty in the shock of the fall
But the men appeared to perceive hisevery nerve to end the struggle The ed this way and that, yet never for a s now, and Ellerey suddenly felt his feet drawn together with a snap The next instant he was thrown backward, knees were pressed upon his chest, his arether, and he was helpless
”I'd like to bury this knife in your cursed carcass,” whispered a voice in his ear
”I've been expecting you to do so,” said Ellerey, panting for breath
”Why don't you?”
”I don't know By Heaven, I don't knohy not”
”Well, I'm sure I don't,” panted Ellerey
”Is he secure?” said another voice
”Yes,” at least half a dozen voices answered ”Then drag him in Perhaps we'll have leave to despatch him presently”
A door was opened, and, with scant cereed by his feet across the floor into a rooain, and so in a bare rooarding hiry looks, yet with curiosity and some respect; and on e flushes that would blacken to-morrow, and blood on lips He looked fronized, yet they were not such a murderous set of scoundrels as he had expected to see, and although more than one of the a knife-blade in hie the hurt he had received, it appeared evident that some consideration held the, murder was not their intention
”It takes a lot to knock the sense out of you,” said one nized the voice which had ordered hied into the roo to settle That must wait for a ht for it, it certainly must,” said Ellerey, with a s you to loosen ht”
”Not a bit of use”
”May I knohy you have trapped me in this way? I should like to see the little hussy who deceived hed
”She's a safe bait, is a woman, all the world over,” said the spokesman, ”and this one's finished her part of the business well enough Now our parts have got to be done Soht you received a token