om the house, Chester raised
his voice and called out sternly in Russian:

"Halt there!"

The Bulgarians halted in their tracks and gazed about in surprise. To the
best of their knowledge there could be no one in the house but the girl,
and this sudden hail in a male voice made them pause.

"What do you want here?" demanded Chester from his shelter.

There was a hurried consultation among the enemy; then one man called:

"We want to get in."

"You can't get in," returned Chester calmly.

There was a roar of laughter from without.

"Did you hear that?" said one. "He says we can't get in." The man called
to Chester: "And who is going to stop us?"

"You'll find there are enough of us here for that purpose," replied the
lad evenly. "I warn you we'll shoot the next step forward you take."

Again those without held a consultation and Chester could barely make out
the trend of the conversation.

"Perhaps they are too many for us," said one.

"Nonsense," was the reply of another. "He's simply trying to frighten us
away. We'll rush the two windows and the doors at the same time. Some of
us will get in."

"All right. Whatever you say--"

"Come on then."

The men split up suddenly into four separate bodies and rushed forward.

"Let 'em have it," said Chester quietly.

His revolver spoke at the same moment as did that of Helen and two men
stumbled as they ran. One recovered himself instantly and came on, but
the other pitched forward to the ground.

Colonel Anderson, at the rear door, remained at his post. There was
nothing he could do until the enemy attempted to force the door.

Ivan, however, stepped quickly from his place of concealment and standing
erect in the doorway fired point blank at the four men who came dashing
toward him. One threw up his hands with a cry and a second muttered a
fierce imprecation. Ivan emptied his revolver and then dashed back to
safety even as a fusillade was fired at him. The Cossack was untouched.
He smiled grimly to himself.

"Not so bad," he muttered.

He reloaded in haste and again stepped into the open. The men before his
post, the three who remained upon their feet, were directly in front of
the door and all fired simultaneously as Ivan showed himself. The big
Cossack felt a stinging sensation in his left arm, but he did not pause
to investigate the wound.

Again he raised his weapon quickly and fired its contents toward his
foes. But Ivan's aim was poor--or he had