The Celebrated New York Detective. CHAPTER XVIIL (Continued.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 379, 22 June 1889, Page 3

The Celebrated New York Detective. CHAPTER XVIIL (Continued. )

Wat sprang to the thick bar that had de- £ fied him' for so long, and, taking it in both j his hands, braced his feet against the sill, and, with an effort that Hercules might not j have been ashamed of, pulled. • i ' Oh, joy ! it yielded ! ' Not much, but somewhat. t He glanced at the men on the floor. They were motionless. He listened with his ear towards the door. The crowd was impatient for the return of j the messengers. Once more he braced his feet and bent his back. , The veins stood out on his face and neck as if they would but at with the pressure; the muscles of his legs and arms stiffened like wires. ( The bar moved ; the noise in the other room grew louder. In another moment the crowd, thirsting ( for his blood, would flood the room. • In another moment the yielding bar 4 would be out of its socket. ' It came ! The crowd poured in ! , They saw the bwo men lying on the floor ; they saw the blood-stained spy escaping by the window. "With such a cry as a pack of hungry • wolves might give at seeing their prey escape alter they had already tasted his blood, the men gave now, and sprang furi- c ously forward. ' Had the shutters not been still in the way, Wat might now have escaped. , As it was, he turned, with a dangerous ' light in his eye, and drawing his pistol, stood on the sill, facing the crowd. * Keep off ! keep off !' he hoarsely cried. They halted and gazed at him with a fury in which no little awe and admiration were mixed. There he stood, clinging by one hand to the bars behind him, the other holding the • pistol in an unwavering grasp. His face was streaked with mingled pers- ' piration, duet,/and blood. His eyes were . blood-shot from the lime that had sifted into' them. They had left him bound, and in a room securely fastened. They found him surrounded by debris and almost a free man. They looked at him, knowing that his freedom meant probable death to many of their friends in the beloved country shut against him. He looked back and thought not now of his own danger, but once more and always of the delicately-nartured lady who was to bo tortured and killed because these men might save others of whom he knew nothing. It was feeedom and Veras life, or — but he would nob again think of the alternative. He must and would accomplish his freedom. He raised his foot and showered kick after kick on. the shutter. As long as he had remained quiet the men had been held in some sort of awe, r but -a*fe the first movement of ibis foobbhey^ rushed forward, reckless of his pistol.' ' ' "* What if one or two of them should die ? What if thrice that-number4hould die, so that the progress of a cause holy to them should not suffer ? How.should they' know what he knew of their secrets ? He was now like- a tiger at bay*. If once they put their hands on him, he knew he would be torn in pieces before he could make a movement to defend himself. Kick" ! .kick ! kick ! The splinters flew as if under the blows of a sledge. A swing of the foot, and the man fell back'witha cry of agony. But the others were there, too, and they could not be swept away so. With ligh.tning-like rapidity he stooped and wrenched the iron bar from the socket it rested in. Still clinging to the bars behind him he swung the bar in a circle around him., and three men fell like logs to the floor. Once again the men paused, and once again-- Wat lifted his foot and drove it against the shattered shutters. Pressed from behind the crowd once more surged forward, with hands eagerly clutching at him. Panting with his extraordinary exertions, and savage now from the fear of being captured after all, he whirled the mighty bar in his hand and brought it down with crushing force on head after head. Appalled by this awful fury, the crowd for the third time hesitated. Summoning now all his agility and force for a supreme effort, Wat flung the bar into the crowd, and whirling around he held by two of the bars, and leaping into the air as he clung thus, brought both feet against the shutters and crashed through them. Torn, bleeding, bruised, he landed on the hard stones of the courtyard, the extent or situation of which he did nob know anything. But' he knew there were wolves behind him thirsting for his blood. He knew he could hardly be worse off than he had been while there was every chance that he might now escape. Already the nihilists were trying to follow him through the window, so he must act at once. He was in the open air now, and though there were no lamps to light up the court, he was able to see that there were a number of other houses opening on it. Ah! What was that? Several figures sprang out of the gloom | at the farther end of the court and ran to- 1 ward him. At the same moment, one after another, c men poured through the opening he ad made in the shutters. He ran in the oppeaite direction from that in which the first men had come. He had not run ten paces when something: hurled through the air struck him on the head. He stumbled, ran on, fell, rose again and fell once more, murmuring : ' Poor Vera ! am I not to save you after all?'