There was no delay; Palura went straight through to his purpose. He disappeared in the dark and narrow entrance way and not a sound was audible except the scuffling of feet.
“Palura’s killed four men,” the cotton broker whispered to Terabon, under his breath.
What seemed an age passed. The lights flickered. Terabon looked about in alarm lest that gang––
A crash outside brought all to their feet, and the whole crowd fell back against the walls. Out of the corridor surged a mass of men, and among them stalked 201 a stalwart giant of a man draped with the remnants of a policeman’s uniform. He had in his right hand a club which he was swinging about him, and every six feet a man dropped upon the floor.
Terabon saw Palura writhing, twisting, and working his way among the fighting mass. He heard a sharp bark:
“Back, boys!”
Four or five men stumbled back and two rolled out of the way of the feet of the policeman. It flashed to Terabon what had been done. They had succeeded in getting the policeman into the huge den of vice, where he could not legally be without a warrant, where Palura could kill him and escape once more on the specious plea of self-defence. Terabon saw the grin of perfect hate on Palura’s face as both his hands came up with automatics in them—a two-handed gunman with his prey.
This would teach the policemen of Mendova to mind their own business! Suddenly Policeman Laddam threw his night stick backhanded at the infamous scoundrel, and Palura dodged, but not quite quickly nor quite far enough. The club whacked noisily against his right elbow and Palura uttered a cry of pain as one pistol fell to the floor.
Then Laddam snatched out his own automatic, a 45-calibre gun, three pounds or more in weight, and began to shoot, calmly, deliberately, and with the artistic appreciation of doing a good job thoroughly.
His first bullet drove Palura straight up, erect; his next carried the bully back three steps; his next whirled him around in a sagging spiral, and the fourth dropped the dive keeper like a bag of loose potatoes.