share this peril, as he had shared so many others.

"It is eleven o'clock now," said the brigand. "If at midnight you have
not signed--!"

"That's enough," said Dick. "I'll think it over."

"Light a fire--it is chilly," directed the chief of Dick's captors. "I
am a kindly man. I would not want this hour to prove a chilly one for
you."

Strange and weird indeed Dick found the scene. There were eleven men, he
found, when he could count them. All wore the Bulgarian national
costume; all looked like soldiers, but he thought all were not
Bulgarians. There were Turks and Albanians among them. And then,
suddenly, one man pitched forward, very quietly, and lay still. The
others started toward him; two or three of them fell. They fell as Dick
had seen men fall when they were struck by bullets, though he had heard
no sound of a shot, but only a faint noise, like the cough of an animal.

Then wild panic spread among his captors. They blazed away in all
directions with their guns; for the moment they forgot him. And then
silent, fierce figures were suddenly among them, cutting, stabbing--and
Stepan's cry rang out.

"Dick! Dick! Are you safe?" he shouted.

It was all over in a moment. Stepan, the tears streaming down his
cheeks, released Dick.

"I lamed your horse--I had to pretend to desert you so that they would
believe you and let me go!" he cried. "I knew our horses were too tired
for us to escape unless we could delay them. A few miles from here is a
little colony of Serbs. We, you see, have to do something to get
warning of the border raids. They have guns with silencers--I knew I
could get help. Now we must ride for the Greek line, but we can make it
now!"

On through the night they rode, leaving the dead and wounded behind,
while those who had been captured unhurt were tied and gagged. And
before daylight they came to a Greek frontier post. Greek soldiers
greeted them; there was a captain who had served with Stepan's father
against Bulgaria.

"The road to Salonica is safe and open now!" he told them.

And so it proved. Dick had recovered his papers and a week later, his
adventures over, he sailed from Athens, and waved to Stepan, standing on
the deck, until he could no longer see him. He was homeward bound.

Hallo had played his last card--and lost.

The End.

MARY A. BYRNE'S BOOKS

THE FAIRY CHASER

"Telling of two boys who go into the vegetable and
flower-raising business instead