one was better cast and lodged squarely upon the stone lintel. They
both shoved at its end, but a man's weight already upon it made their
task difficult.

"It is on my side. Push, Marishka!"

He aimed his automatic past the edge of the gatepost and shot the
man--an Austrian soldier--just as he sprang for the landing. He fell
upon the stone, hung to the timber a moment, and fell. Renwick sprang
further out and emptied his clip at the next man, who gave a cry and
dropped. Renwick felt a stinging blow on his left arm, but before
another man began to cross Marishka managed to shove the timber clear
and it fell into the abyss below.

They were safe for the moment. He looked at Marishka in the gathering
light. She was pale as death, but she did not show fear.

"All right?" he asked anxiously.

"Yes--yes," she gasped, "and you?"

"Never better."

His arm burned like a live coal, but the madness of battle was in his
blood and he did not care--so long as Marishka did not know of his
injury. The firing had ceased for the moment, as he crawled up and
peered through the loophole.

"We've beaten them, Marishka," he cried triumphantly. "They've gone
back--I see no timbers. They're doing something. I can see quite plainly
now--fastening a handkerchief to the muzzle of a rifle." And as she rose
to look, "Don't expose yourself. It may be a trick. For God's sake keep
down."

He picked up the magazine rifle beside him and thrust it through the
loophole, covering the two men who were advancing to the brink of the
abyss. In the pale light he marked the figure of Windt quite clearly.
The other man wore the uniform of an officer of Austrian infantry. And
now he heard the voice of the officer raised in parley.

"Schloss Szolnok--a truce!"

For reply Renwick thrust the muzzle of his rifle further through the
loophole.

"In the name of the Emperor of Austria, I command you to deliver Herr
Hauptmann Leo Goritz."

Renwick laughed madly.

"I regret that that is impossible."

"I beg that you will listen to reason. Austrian troops are all about
you. You cannot resist by daylight. If you will deliver the person of
Herr Hauptmann Goritz and Countess Strahni, we will leave you in peace."

Renwick paused. Far below in the valley to his right, a new sound broke
the stillness of the early morning--rifle-fire close at hand, rapid
volleys, and then a scattering of shots which echoed with a new
significance up the mountain side. He peere