sed the call on to Bill. He
claimed the reinforcement which only desperate emergency had the right
to demand. Then he flung himself to the task of making good the
depleted defence where Abe had withdrawn his men.

The crisis was more deadly than could have seemed possible a moment
before. The whole aspect of the scene had been changed. The breach,
that dreaded breach with all its deadly meaning, was achieved in
something that amounted only to seconds.

The neches swarmed on the embankments on the lower foreshore. The
defenders who had been left were driven back before the fierce
onslaught. They were already giving ground when Kars flung himself to
their support. The whole position looked like being turned.

It was no longer a battle of coldly calculated method. Here at least
it had become a conflict where individual nerve and ability alone could
win out. Already some dozen of the half-nude savages had forced
themselves across the embankment, and more were pressing on behind. It
was a moment to blast the sternest courage. It was a moment when the
whole edifice of the white man's purpose looked to be tottering, if not
falling headlong. Kars understood. He had the measure of the threat
to the last fraction, and he flung himself into the battle with a
desperateness of energy and resolve that bore almost immediate fruit.

His coming had checked the breaking of the defenders. But he knew it
was like patching rotten material. His influence could not last
without Bill and his reinforcements. He plied his guns with a
discrimination which no heat or excitement could disturb, and the first
invaders fell under his attack amidst a din of fierce-throated cries.
His men rallied. But he knew they were fighting now with a shadow at
the back of their minds. It was his purpose to remove that shadow, and
he strove with voice and act to do so.

The first support of his coming passed with the emptying of his
pistols. He flung them aside without a moment's hesitation, and
grabbed a rifle from a fallen neche. It was the act of a man who knew
the value of every second gained. He knew, even more, the value of his
own gigantic strength.

The weapon in his hands became a far-reaching club. And, swinging it
like a fiercely driven flail, he rushed into the crowd of savages,
scattering them like chaff in a gale. The smashing blows fell on heads
that split under their superlative force, and the ground about him
became lik