Don’t waste a shot! The police should be here any moment."
CRASH! The lock and bolt mapped, and the door itself was pressed inward several inches, but rebounded by the pressure of the barricade.
CRASH! This time the door yielded more than a foot, and in the opening Carlson could see a man’s form. He fired, and a shriek followed. Four or five shots were aimed at Carlson, but did not reach him in his protected corner angle. Suddenly a voice yelled from the outer room:
"The Cops! They're around the house!"
"Damnation! Get the Girl, at all costs!"
When the next rush brought a man into view Carlson fired, and he knew by the scream that he had hit once more. The pistol dropped from his hand, and his body swayed. But the girl realized everything in an instant. Quick as thought she snatched up the pistol with her right hand as she knelt beside him, and her other arm went around him.
At that instant a perfect fusillade of shooting sounded from the outer room, followed by screams, yelling and groaning. Then a masked man with a pistol in his hand bounded wildly into the half-opened door of the bathroom. But Ina fired from their darkened corner before he saw them, and he fell backward among the debris.
Carlson felt everything growing dark.
"Ina?"
"Yes, dear; we've won the fight!" His head sank against her breast, just as two policemen appeared in the doorway.
She dropped the pistol and put both arms about him.
VI
"Miss Holden?" asked one of the officers, turning his bull's-eye lantern on them.
She did not answer, but looked long and tensely at Carlson's white unconscious face. Then she pressed a kiss on his forehead.
"He saved me!" she said, looking up at the officers. "I owe everything to him. Please send for a surgeon and have him taken to my home immediately."
"The police surgeon will be here in a moment, Miss Holden. Let us take him into another room."
As they took him from her arms they saw that her garment was soaked with his blood.
"Who is he?" asked the lieutenant.
"I don't know. He was brought here by the kidnappers when I seemed to be very sick. We had no time for anything but defense."
The lieutenant took off his overcoat and placed it over Ina's shoulders, and then they both followed the two officers who carried the unconscious Carlson out through the wreck of the dressing-room and larger bedroom.
And what a scene of ruin and blood! They had to pick their way through masses of broken furniture. One masked dead man lay just outside the bathroom—the man Ina had shot. Another man, his mask torn off, sat propped up against an overturned chiffonier on the floor of the large bedroom. He was groaning and trying to wring his manacled hands, as two officers knelt beside him and searched his pockets.
The mammoth carcass of Tony lay where Carlson and Ina had first dragged it. but it was now half covered by the mattress and debris of the bed. At least a dozen policemen in the rooms. The woman Teresa stood sniveling in a corner, unmasked and handcuffed.
But there was a sudden silence as Ina Holden appeared. her face bloody, her feet bare. and her form covered by the officer’s overcoat. All eyes were fixed on the girl, whose name and picture had been in every newspaper from Maine to California for the five days.
