it was five minutes or fifty I couldn't
say--they gave back a bit. There was quite a heap of dead and wounded
round about us; but I don't think Anne's father was hurt as yet, and I
felt no pain, though my left arm hung limp and useless, numbed by a blow
from a "killer" that had missed my head; and something warm was dripping
down my right wrist.

"What now?" I heard Pendennis say, in that brief lull in the
pandemonium.

"God knows. We can't get to the door; we must fight it out here; they're
coming on again. On guard!"

We swung up our weapons, but before the rush could reach us, there was a
crash close at hand; the door through which Anne and her guards had
entered the chapel was thrown open, and a big man dashed in,--Loris
himself, still in his disguise. So he had reached us at last!

He must have grasped the situation at a glance, for he shouted: "Back;
back for your lives! By the other door. We are betrayed; the soldiers
are here. They are coming this way. Save yourselves!"

CHAPTER XXI

A FORLORN HOPE

They were a craven crew,--bold enough when arrayed in their numbers
against two men and one helpless girl, but terror-stricken at these
fresh tidings.

That was my opinion of them at the time, but perhaps it was unjust.
Every man who attended that meeting had done so at the deliberate risk
of his life and liberty. Most of them had undoubtedly tramped the whole
way to the rendezvous, through the storm and swelter of the summer
night, and they were fatigued and unstrung. Also, the Russian--and
especially the revolutionary Russian--is a queer psychological amalgam.
Ordinarily as callous and stoical as a Chinaman in the infliction or
endurance of death or torture, he is yet a bundle of high-strung nerves,
and at any moment his cool cynicism is liable to give place to sheer
hysteria.

Therefore at the warning shout, panic seized them, and they fled,
helter-skelter, through the main door. In less than a minute the place
was clear of all but ourselves and the dead and wounded on the floor.

Loris slammed the door, barred it, and strode back to us. Pendennis was
kneeling beside Anne, calling her by her name, and I leaned against the
wall, staring stupidly down at them. I was faint and dizzy all at once,
incapable for the moment of either speech or action.

"Well done, my friend!" the Duke exclaimed. "You thought I had failed
you, eh? Come, we must get out of this quickly. They will return when
they fin