f-lit gallery with open windows at the further end.
There was a wilderness of lumber down the sides of the great garret,
and now I come to think of it more calmly I imagine it was Hath's Lost
Property Office, the vast receptacle where his slaves deposited
everything lazy Martians forgot or left about in their daily life. At
that moment it only represented a last refuge, and into it I dashed,
swung the doors to and fastened them just as the foremost of Ar-hap's
men hurled themselves upon the barrier from outside.

There I was like a rat in a trap, and like a rat I made up my mind to
fight savagely to the end, without for a moment deceiving myself as to
what that end must be. Even up there the horrible roar of destruction
was plainly audible as the barbarians sacked and burned the ancient
town, and I was glad from the bottom of my heart my poor little
princess was safely out of it. Nor did I bear her or hers the least
resentment for making off while there was yet time and leaving me to my
fate--anything else would have been contrary to Martian nature.
Doubtless she would get away, as Hath had said, and elsewhere drop a
few pearly tears and then over her sugar-candy and lotus-eating forget
with happy completeness--most blessed gift! And meanwhile the foresaid
barbarians were battering on my doors, while over their heads choking
smoke was pouring in in ever-increasing volumes.

In burst the first panel, then another, and I could see through the
gaps a medley of tossing weapons and wild faces without. Short shrift
for me if they came through, so in the obstinacy of desperation I set
to work to pile old furniture and dry goods against the barricade. And
as they yelled and hammered outside I screamed back defiance from
within, sweating, tugging, and hauling with the strength of ten men,
piling up the old Martian lumber against the opening till, so fierce
was the attack outside, little was left of the original doorway and
nothing between me and the besiegers but a rampart of broken woodwork
half seen in a smother of smoke and flames.

Still they came on, thrusting spears and javelins through every crevice
and my strength began to go. I threw two tables into a gap, and
brained a besieger with a sweetmeat-seller's block and smothered
another, and overturned a great chest against my barricade; but what
was the purpose of it all? They were fifty to one and my rampart
quaked before them. The smoke was stifling, and the pains