multaneously with the free-lunch man; and in that
same second a battering-ram mob crashed against it from the other
side. Weir was knocked sprawling; the door sagged from a broken hinge.
See crouched behind the heavy table and pitched. Two things happened.
Bullets plowed the green cloth of the table and ricocheted from the
smooth slate; bushels of billiard balls streamed through the open door
and thudded on quivering flesh. Flesh did not like that. It squeaked
and turned and fled, tramping the fallen, screaming. Billiard balls
crashed sickeningly on defenseless backs. In cold fact, Charlie See
threw six balls; at that close range flesh could have sworn to sixty.
Charlie felt rather than saw a bloodless face rise behind the bar; he
ducked to the shelter of the billiard table as a bullet grooved the
rail; his own gun roared, a heavy mirror splintered behind the bar:
the Merman had also ducked. Charlie threw two shots through the
partition. At the front, woodwork groaned and shattered as a six-foot
mob passed through a four-foot door. Charlie had a glimpse of the
crouching Merman, the last man through. For encouragement another
shot, purposely high, crashed through the transom; the Merman escaped
in a shower of glass.

"How's that, umpire?" said Charlie See.

The business had been transacted in ten seconds. If one man can cover
a hundred yards in ten seconds how many yards can forty men make in
the same time?

"Curious!" said Charlie. "Some of that bunch might have stood up to a
gun well enough. But they can't see bullets. And once they turned
tail--good night!"

He slipped along the rail to the other end of the table, his gun
poised and ready. Caney sprawled on the floor in a huddle. His mouth
was open, gasping, his eyes rolled back so that only the whites were
visible, his livid face twitched horribly. See swooped down on Caney's
gun and made swift inspection of the cylinder; he did the like by
Weir's, and then tiptoed to the partition door, first thrusting his
own gun into his waistband. The barroom was empty; only the diving
Mermaid smiled invitation to him. See turned and raced for the back
door. Even as he turned a gust of wind puffed through the open front
door and the wrecked middle door; the lamps flared, the back door
slammed with a crash.

With the sound of that slamming door, a swift new thought came to
See. He checked, halted, turned back. He took one look at the
unconscious Caney. Then he swept a gener