I drew Volna back into the doorway of a house as they passed at the double; and the fight broke out again this time with the advantage all against the strikers.
Men fell fast, and the crowd scattered and made for cover in the houses on either side of the street.
Escape for us was now impossible for the time, for the fight raged close to the door of the house where we had sheltered.
In the thick of the fight at some distance from us, I could see Bremenhof. If he had been a coward while we two had been alone and he believed death to be close to him, he was no coward now. He was not like the same man. Passion, or the company of his men, gave him courage. He was everywhere, directing his men and exposing himself fearlessly where the fighting was hottest; and always seeking to press forward as though in pursuit of us.
Fresh tactics were next adopted by the crowd. Men who had fled from the street appeared at the open windows of the houses and fired on the police and troops from this vantage. Many shots told; and to save themselves from this form of attack, the troops began to enter the houses in their turn and search for the armed men.
And all this time the press and throng of police and strikers made escape for us impossible.
After a time the training of the troops and police told; the crowds in the streets lessened; many prisoners were taken, most of them bloodstained with marks of the conflict; and the noise of the conflict began to die down. But not for long.
The news that fighting was in progress had spread far and wide, and a body of strikers who had been parading the main street near were attracted to the scene.
The police in their turn found themselves caught between two hostile mobs; and the flame of fight which had almost flickered down flared up again more luridly and vigorously than ever.
The prisoners were torn from the grasp of their captors in the moment of surprise, and hurried past us to the rear of the fighters.