doubled up beside him and rolled to the floor. Others were falling,
too, stumbling and clutching vainly for support, but Billie's slim
white figure still stood unwavering beside her father and Thode turned
grimly to his task.

Twice more the bandits charged, and twice they were beaten back,
leaving augmented blotches of huddled bodies in the road, but the toll
had been heavy within. Groans and curses filled the air as men pitched
headlong from their loophole posts to writhe upon the floor and once a
woman's shrill scream rang out as a tawdrily clothed shape dropped
across the bar.

Thode's shoulder burned and a warm stream raced down his arm; his
forehead, too, was seared as if by a white-hot brand, but he dashed the
blood impatiently from his eyes that he might see what this sudden lull
in the hostilities portended. He was not long in doubt for a thin
skirmish line leaped across the road, yelling like demons and firing as
they ran, and close behind their protecting curtain of shot appeared a
double row of half-crouched forms, bearing a huge battering-ram.

Heroically the little garrison sought to stem the tide of destruction,
but as quickly as a gap appeared in the on-coming wave it was filled
and the flood swept irresistibly on. More than one narrow window now
was unmanned against the attack and as the bullets pattered like hail
through the unobstructed apertures, Thode heard a sharp little cry
which turned his heart to lead within him.

Wheeling, he saw through the murky reek that Gentleman Geoff was down
at last, his head cradled in Billie's arms, a spreading stain upon the
soft white silk of his shirt. Thrusting his rifle into the hands of a
neighbor, Thode leaped from the table, and as he reached the girl's
side a thunderous crash smote the heavy door.

"He isn't----?"

Billie shook her head and at the unfinished sentence Gentleman Geoff's
eyelids lifted and he gazed full and understandingly into the face of
the young engineer.

"Not yet, but I'm done for. See that--Billie--cashes in before----"

"Listen, Sir! Can you hear me? I'm going to make a break for it, do
you understand?" Thode's voice rang out clear above the strife. "How
long will that door hold?"

"An hour, maybe. It's as solid as a rock, and the bolts are steel, but
nothing could withstand that ramming for long." Gentleman Geoff had
rallied his waning strength to meet that new note of quickened impulse.

"It's the one chance le