It was at that moment that Dick Terry sprang the unexpected. He appeared suddenly at the door of the inner room. He spotted the form of Barney Gleason.
He shot at the gang leader, but Gleason had seen him coming. A series of shots rang out as Gleason dived for cover. Dick Terry dropped back out of sight.
Gleason was on his feet again, making silent signals that all understood. He was giving the cue: Wait for a few minutes.
If Dick appeared again, the crouching shock troops could fling themselves upon him, following him back into the inner room. The other gats must wait.
Like a music maestro, Gleason was lulling with a downward movement of his hands. The meaning was plain.
Moments passed. Barney Gleason, in the center of the room, was snarling meaningless orders to mislead the beleaguered victim. His watchful eye was on the door of the little room, however. Dick Terry acted as Barney Gleason had hoped. He appeared again at the door, armed with the revolver of the gangster whom he had shot in the little room. He spotted Barney Gleason, but the gang leader was already dodging for the protection of a thick post, and Dick's shots were of no avail. This time there was no fusillade from the gangsters scattered about the room. Instead, the four gorillas by the door leaped to their feet and threw themselves in a mass toward Dick Terry. Their attack was totally unexpected. But for a remarkable intervention, they would have fallen upon their startled prey before Dick could fire another shot to save himself. Death was planned as quick and certain.
But the intervention arrived. Automatics barked from close beside the outer door of the big room. Like toy figures, the four attackers went down in quick succession, one toppling — two sprawling — the last slumping slowly to the floor!
It formed a most amazing picture — four fiends of gangland rising silently to the attack, then dropping helplessly at the sound of that protecting gunfire — dropping before they had discharged a solitary bullet!
Barney Gleason whirled toward the spot from which the destructive shots had come. He saw the smoking automatics in the hands of the scarred, unknown gangster. Barney's quick shout, that rose above the echoes of the dying gunfire, was the signal for a free-for-all attack. Gangsters, on their feet, were aiming for that unexpected enemy, while others were shooting toward Dick Terry at the doorway of the inner room.
Only Barney Gleason was inactive. He was heading for a spot where he would be momentarily protected from the gunfire of the stranger.