“I do,” he said curtly. “You’d better run away, Vladimir. My friend Gray has some unbribed officers in those planes that are going to land in a minute or so.”
Vladimir laughed.
“What difference?” he asked amusedly. “My people are cowed, now. They will swear to anything I choose to tell them. All that I need to do is hand over some of them to be hanged. One or two will go for killing my servant. They will confess to whatever I say. And I will take the others away with me.”
“You’re sure?” asked Cunningham grimly. “Quite sure?”
“But certainly,” Vladimir laughed again. “They are afraid I will tell who they are. But you—— Time is short.” He glanced at Stephan and his voice rasped. “Take away his weapons!”
Stephan approached Cunningham, cowering from the menace of Vladimir’s eyes. He seemed to be in the ultimate of terror, but as he drew near to Cunningham, and Vladimir could not see his face, he smiled grimly. There was no terror on his face then. He made a reassuring gesture.
“Take it!” rasped Vladimir harshly. “Disarm him!”
Stephan’s lips moved but Cunningham could not quite understand what he wished to convey. But he had two revolvers and he thrust one into Stephan’s hand and drew and jerked the other behind him while Stephan’s body covered the movement.
“Ah,” purred Vladimir as Stephan drew back and handed over the weapon. “You see it is necessary to kill you, Cunningham. My folk will take the blame for it. I shall probably let Stephan hang for your murder. They need a lesson, you understand. But I will be merciful. A bullet through the heart——”
He raised Cunningham’s own revolver, but he never fired it. As his arm lifted, Cunningham’s own weapon came around. But Cunningham did not fire either. There was a panted ejaculation and a dozen Strangers seemed to spring from the earth. With the savagery and directness of so many panthers they leaped upon Vladimir. He was hidden from view in a mass of savagely stabbing figures who clung to him in a grim silence. Vladimir screamed just once, and his revolver went off with a deafening explosion. One of the Strangers rolled to the ground, coughing, while he grinned in spite of his agony.