jumped heavily to the boards, and Peter caught the gleam of
steel-tipped bullets in the narrow strap which was slung from shoulder
to waist.

The foreman of the rope-pullers dared to raise his head, and Bobbie
kicked him with his heavy-shod foot in the stomach, and the coolie
bounded up and backward, and lay draped limply over the side.

As they ran under the broad, dark arch into the street, he gave Peter
in one hand the thick butt of an army automatic, and in the other a
half-dozen loaded clips.

And they began blazing their way to the palace steps. Weird figures
sprang up from the muck, and were shot back to earth.

They reached the hill top, and the green moon of Tibet scored the roof
of the white palace.

A handful of guards, with rifles and swords, rushed down the broad, low
flight.

The two men flung themselves upon the clay, while high-powered bullets
plunked on either side of them or soughed overhead. The two automatics
blazed in shattering chorus. The guards parted, backed up, some ran
away, others fell, and Peter felt the sudden burn of screaming lead
across his shoulder. He slipped another clip of cartridges into the
steel butt; they leaped up and raced to the white steps. A rifle
spurted and roared in the black shadow. Bobbie groaned, staggered, and
climbed on. Now they were guided by a woman's sharp cries issuing from
an areaway. And they stopped in amazement before a majestic
white-marble portal.

With two coolies struggling to pinion her arms, the girl was kicking,
scratching, biting with the fire of a wildcat, dragging them toward the
broad, white veranda.

Bobbie shot the foremost of them through the brain, and the other,
gibbering terribly, vanished into the shadow.

Peter caught Miss Vost by one hand and raced down the steps. Bobbie,
holding his head in a grotesque gesture, ran and staggered behind them.

Bobbie waved his free arm savagely. "Don't wait for me! Get her out
of this place! Don't take your eyes from her till you reach Wenchow!"

He wheeled and shot three times at a figure which had stolen up behind
him. The figure spun about and seemed to melt into a hole in the earth.

Peter wrapped his arm about Bobbie's waist and dragged him down the
hill. Miss Vost, as he realized after that demonstration in the
areaway, could handle herself.

The bridge was up. Lights glowed from hovel ways like evil red eyes.
Peter released the rope and the bridge sprang down to the r