nd of the attack upon himself. The police try to make an
entrance from the street--that was the first shot we heard--and are
driven back; then they try to creep in from the yard, and those poor
devils were killed."

As he spoke a sudden silence had fallen, a silence as startling as had
been the shout of warning. Some fresh attack upon the house which the
prisoners could not see, but which must be visible to those in the
houses opposite was going forward.

"Perhaps they are on the roof,"' whispered Ford joyfully. "They'll be
through the trap in a minute, and you'll be free!"

"No!" said the girl.

She also spoke in a whisper, as though she feared Prothero might hear
her. And with her hand she again pointed. Cautiously above the top
of the ladder appeared the head and shoulders of a man. He wore a
policeman's helmet, but, warned by the fate of his comrades, he came
armed. Balancing himself with his left hand on the rung of the ladder,
he raised the other and pointed a revolver. It was apparently at the two
prisoners, and Miss Dale sprang to one side.

"Standstill!" commanded Ford. "He knows who YOU are! You heard that yell
when they saw you? They know you are the prisoner, and they are glad
you're still alive. That officer is aiming at the window BELOW us. He's
after the men who murdered his mates."

From the window directly beneath them came the crash of a rifle, and
from the top of the ladder the revolver of the police officer blazed in
the darkness. Again the rifle crashed, and the man on the ladder jerked
his hands above his head and pitched backward. Ford looked into the face
of the girl and found her eyes filled with horror.

"Where is my uncle, Pearsall?" she faltered. "He has two rifles--for
shooting in Scotland. Was that a rifle that----" Her lips refused to
finish the question.

"It was a rifle," Ford stammered, "but probably Prothero----"

Even as he spoke the voice of the Jew rose in a shriek from the floor
below them, but not from the window below them. The sound was from
the front room opening on Sowell Street. In the awed silence that had
suddenly fallen his shrieks carried sharply. They were more like the
snarls and ravings of an animal than the outcries of a man.

"Take THAT!" he shouted, with a flood of oaths, "and THAT, and THAT!"

Each word was punctuated by the report of his automatic, and to the
amazement of Ford, was instantly answered from Sowell Street by a
scattered volley of rifle a