“Oh, I'm glad,” said Luella. “I should have seen them always if you had killed them.”
“I shouldn't have minded giving them something to remember,” said I, vexed at my poor display of marksmanship, but feeling an innate conviction that I must have hit them.
“What on earth did they attack us for?” exclaimed Luella indignantly. “We hadn't hurt anything.”
Before I could reply to Luella's question, a tattoo was beaten upon the door and a muffled shout came from the other side. I stepped down from the stair to listen.
“Are you hurt?” shouted Corson. “What's the matter?”
“No damage,” I returned. “I drove them off.”
Corson shouted some further words, but they were lost in a sudden murmur of voices and a scuffle of feet that arose behind.
“Look out!” cried Luella peremptorily. “Come back here!”
I have said that the passage opened into a little court, and at the end a lamp gave light to the court and the passage.
As I turned I saw a confusion of men pouring into the open space and heading for the passage. They were evidently Chinese, but in the gleam of the lamp I was sure I saw the evil face and snake-eyes of Tom Terrill. He was wrapped in the Chinese blouse, but I could not be mistaken. Then with a chorus of yells there was the crack of a pistol, and a bullet struck the door close to my ear.