ng the grenade he had
thrown.

"Ribiera's dead," he snapped, "and if I'm shot The Master dies too and
you all go mad! Stand back!"

The deputies stood frozen.

"I think," said Jamison composedly, "I take a hand now. I'll pick him
up, Bell.... Right. I've got him. With a grenade hanging down his
back. If he jerks away from me, or I from him, it will blow his spine
to bits."

"Hold him so," said Bell coldly.

* * * * *

He went coolly to where he could look over the heap of the collapsed
wall. He saw a bundle of torn clothing that had been a man. It was
flung against a cracked and tottering chimney.

"Right," he said evenly. "Ribiera's dead, all right."

He turned to the deputies, whose revolvers were still in their hands.

"The Master's carriage, please," he said politely. "To the door. You
may accompany us if you please, but in other carriages. I am working
for the release of all the Master's slaves, and you among them if you
choose. But you can see very easily that there is no hope of the
release of The Master without the meeting of my terms."

The Master spoke, softly and mildly and without fear.

"It is my order that the Senor Bell is to be obeyed. I shall return.
You need have no fear of my death. My carriage."

A man went stiffly, half-paralyzed with terror, to where chattering
scared servants were grouped in the awful fear that came upon the
slaves of The Master at any threat to his rule.

But Bell and Paula and Jamison went slowly and cautiously--though they
held the whip hand--to the entrance door of the house, and out to the
entrance gate. A carriage was already before the door when they
reached it, and others were drawing up in a line behind it.

"Get in," said Bell briefly. "Down to the waterfront."

He turned to the group of frock-coated, stricken men who had followed.

"Some of you men," he said coldly, "had better go on ahead and warn
the police and the public generally about the certainty of The
Master's death if any attempt is made to rescue him."

Francia, of Paraguay, summoned a swagger and raised his hand to the
second carriage. It drew in to the curb.

"I will attend to it, Senor Bell," he said politely. "Ah, when I think
that I once raised my revolver to shoot you and refrained!"

He drove off swiftly.

* * * * *

Bell's eyes were glowing. He got into the carriage, and such a
procession drove through the streets