Grant hurried back to the door for one look up the street. If Dixie were only on the way with the constabulary. If he could only catch sight of her, leading the plunging mass of horsemen on their way to the hall! But Harrison Grant looked in vain. There was no sight of the girl he loved, no sight of the hurrying horsemen that would mean safety for the town of Old Forge. Grant's heart sank within him. Beyond him in the hall were more than two hundred desperate men and hundreds of pounds of explosives. And they must not be permitted to start forth on their journey of destruction!
Grant hesitated only a second. Then as the line of destroyers within the main meeting hall started to receive their dynamite——
A hurtling form crashed through the door from the back room. Leaping toward Stanley Dembriki, in charge of the dynamite, he felled him with a crashing blow from his fist. Heinric von Lertz took one look and ran through the door that had been left open by the entrance of Harrison Grant. But the I.W.W. members could only see this one form and could only know that Grant had interfered with their schemes of destruction. A second of hesitation, then they rushed forward.
But Grant was ready for them. A heavy chair stood nearby. He seized it and taking his place near the dynamite, felled the first man who approached. The crackle of a revolver sounded, and a bullet splintered the wood just above his head. Then a shout——
"Stop that shooting! You're liable to explode the dynamite. No need for that—we'll get him!"
Grant whirled. Again he brought the chair crashing downward, and Faggi had been knocked from the platform. The members of the I.W.W. recoiled slightly. Grant, white faced and grim, scowled at them.
"I'd advise you not to try to touch this dynamite!" he ordered. "I'll use this chair on any one who comes near—and I'll swing to kill!"
A growl answered him, as a great, heavy shouldered German edged his way forward, and sprung toward the platform, Grant kept his word. A second later, the German wavered in his tracks, stumbled and fell, to lay quite still beside the other two men on the floor. Again a recoil—but Grant knew that it was only for a minute.
And in that minute, how his ears strained for the sound of galloping horses! How he waited and hoped!
Then a sudden rush of men. It seemed that by some common impulse, the whole great hall surged forward—climbing upon the platform, dodging and swirling, seeking to come under the defense that Harrison Grant kept up, ducking the blows of the heavy chair, surging back then coming forward again, striving to corner him, to beat him down——