ey didn't get here any too
soon either. Well, that's all I can do for you now, son. Jones, you stay
here until I come back--you know what to do."

Miles' eyes followed him; then he looked at the dead bodies,
shuddering, his hands to his face. When he took them down again he
seemed to see Billie for the first time.

"You--you here, Miss! Oh, I remember now; it had been knocked plum out
o' me. Did he get away?"

"Who?"

"That feller who knifed Burke. I had him all right, sir, back in the
coal cellar. He'd crawled away there into one corner, an' it was dark as
hell--beg your pardon, Miss." The sergeant sank back against Jones'
shoulder, and the man wet his lips with water. "I couldn't see only the
mere outline of him, and didn't dare crawl in, for I knew he had a
knife. All I could do was cover him with a gun, an' try to make him come
out. That's what I was up to when you called. Damned if I knew what to
do then--there was some racket up stairs, let me tell you, an' I knew
there was a devil of a fight goin' on. I wanted to be in it the worst
way, but I couldn't find it in my heart to let that devil loose again.
Finally I got desperate, an' grabbed him by the leg, an' hauled him out,
spittin' and fightin' like a cat. He cut me once, before I got a grip on
his wrist, an' my gun shoved against him. Then he went weak as a rag.
But I wan't thinkin' much except about the fracas up stairs--the boys
catchin' hell, an' me not with 'em. So I didn't fool long with that
feller. I just naturally yanked him 'long with me up stairs into the
kitchen, an' flung him down against the wall. I got one glance out into
the hall, an' didn't care no more what become o' him. You was facin' the
whole mob of 'em, swingin' a gun barrel, an' I knew where I belonged.
But damned if that feller didn't startle me. He was up like a flash to
his feet, an' I thought he was trying to get me. But he wasn't. When I
run to you, he wasn't two steps behind, an' may I be jiggered, sir, if
he didn't jump in there on your right, an' fight like a wild man. That's
all I saw, just the first glimpse. He sure went into it all right, but I
don't know how he come out."

"Well, I do; I happened to see that myself, though I hardly know how. He
was clubbed with a musket from the stairs. The man who hit him fell when
the railing broke. The two of them must be lying over there now. Who was
he, Miles? Did you know him?"

The sergeant wiped the perspiration from his face wit