's_ for
the doctor, and _that's_ for my wife, and _that's_ for my daughter, and
_that's_ for me!"

Dalroy did not attempt to stop him. These men must die. They had come to
the mill to destroy; it was just retribution that they themselves should
be destroyed. His coolness in this crisis was not the least important
factor in a situation rife with peril. His method of attack had
converted a fight against heavy odds into a speedy and most effectual
slaughter. But that was only the beginning. Even while the frenzied
yelling of the squirming Busch was subsiding into a frothy gurgle he
went to the door and listened. A battery of artillery was passing at a
trot, and creating din enough to drown the cries of a hundred Busches.

He looked back over his shoulder. Madame Joos was on her knees, praying.
The poor woman had no thought but that her last hour had come. Happily,
she was spared the sight of her husband's vengeance. Happily, too, none
of the women fainted. Leontine was panting and sobbing in Maertz's
arms. Irene, leaning against the wall near the fireplace, was gazing
now at Joos, now at the fallen man at her feet, now at Dalroy. But
her very soul was on fire. She, too, had yielded to the madness of a
life-and-death struggle. Her eyes were dilated. Her bosom rose and fell
with laboured breathing. Her teeth were still clenched, her lips parted
as though she dreaded to find some loathsome taste on them.

Maertz seemed to have retained his senses, so Dalroy appealed to him.
"Jan," he said quietly, "we must go at once. Get your master and the
others outside. Then extinguish the lamp. Hurry! We haven't a second
to spare."

Joos heard. Satisfied now that the fork had been effective, he
straightened his small body and said shrilly, "You go, if you like. I'll
not leave my money to be burnt with my house.--Now, wife, stir yourself.
Where's that key?"

The familiar voice roused Madame Joos from a stupor of fear. She fumbled
in her bodice, and produced a key attached to a chain of fine silver.
Her husband mounted nimbly on a chair, ran a finger along one of the
heavy beams which roofed the kitchen, found a cunningly hidden keyhole,
and unlocked a long, narrow receptacle which had been scooped out of the
wood. A more ingenious, accessible, yet unlikely hiding-place for
treasure could not readily be imagined. He took out a considerable sum
of money in notes, gold, and silver. Though a man of wealth, with a
substantial account in