ft! They've found by this time that they
couldn't batter down that iron door at the back, set as it is in the
solid masonry, and it may be that they've concentrated all their
efforts here on this side. At least I'll have to try my luck and cut
through. We've got to have the troops! Ten level miles, and the dawn
is coming; I ought to make it and back in an hour, before the door
gives way."

Gentleman Geoff raised himself on one elbow and extended his hand.

"You're right! It's the last chance, and maybe your luck will hold.
Go to it, Thode, I know you'll play--to win!"

The girl was staring at him with shining eyes, and he paused only long
enough to lay his hand upon her arm.

"You have your revolver--if they break through before I get back----?"

"Don't be afraid for us." Her voice rang out steadily and clearly
above the roar of conflict. "I'll take care of myself and Dad until
you come! Hasta la vista!"

Thode drew a deep breath, and, turning, made for the door and across
the patio, miraculously cool and calm beneath the dimming stars. The
little door at the farther end of the house wall was guarded now by a
dark-skinned youth whose teeth chattered in his head, and Thode, with a
hasty explanation, shot the bolts and slipped through into the
rubbish-heaped alley.

Not a living thing was in sight but a yellow cur crouching under a
cask, and Thode reached the mouth of the narrow passage to see only the
backs of the mob clustered about the corner.

The moonlight was gone, and slipping into the darker shadows of the
wall, he sped off in the opposite direction around the square to where
the moving bulk of the line of picketed horses showed at the end of an
intersecting street.

Unnoted, he reached them and laid his hand upon the bridle of the
nearest. The beast plunged nervously and a dark figure sprang up with
a hoarse cry, which died in his throat as Thode brought his clubbed
rifle down upon his head.

Other shouts arose above the distant crash of the battering-ram; other
figures advanced, and in the patter of stray shots a horse screamed and
fell kicking among his terrorized fellows, but Thode had twitched free
the knot which haltered his mount and was off and away up the narrow
street, in a thunder of hoof-beats which outran the fusillade and
pounded steadily on into the silence of the coming dawn.

CHAPTER IV

GENTLEMAN GEOFF PASSES THE DEAL

With the departure of Kearn Thode on his miss