The only shooting appeared to be aimed at Splendor and the fallen deputy, sprawled in the white glare of the spotlight.
It was Mercedes Colby who acted in the nick of time to save them. Already she had cut loose the racked body of Count Borg and freed his sobbing companion. Now, braving the bullets that clipped across the stage, she started to drag Michael Splendor out of the light.
At that moment two Malay councilmen broke through Don’s thin line of fighting deputies. Maddened by the smart of tear gas they leaped onto the platform, armed with long, glittering knives. Their yells of tigerish fury announced that they had gone amok.
Bullets could not have stopped them in time, yet Mercedes sprang to face them. Her left hand pistol barked. White smoke from the tear gas cartridges belched in the face of her attackers.
Their yells ended in choking grunts. Clawing at their blinded eyes, the Malays staggered back to plunge over the platform’s edge.
XXXI
THE SECRET CHAMBER
From then on it was a losing battle for the Scorpion forces. The tear gas, now filling the entire room, effectively blinded everyone but the masked raiders. One after another the furious councilmen gave up the struggle to nurse their swollen eyes.
Don Winslow sensed the turn of the tide. Turning back, he leaped onto the stage which was still clear of the fumes, and raised his mask.
“Give up, you dupes of Scorpia!” he shouted. “All those who have had enough, come this way!”
There was an instant rush toward the platform. With streaming, smarting eyes, the men and women of Cho-San’s erstwhile audience fought their way toward the sound of Don’s voice, glad to surrender. The only ones who stayed back were the twenty or more who had run into a hard-swung gun butt, and lay snoring where they had dropped.