“The Emperor again!” I gasped weakly.
“Couple of fools, we are!” grumbled the Chief in reply. “But I won’t forget that, Clayton. That’s twice you’ve pulled me out of a nasty mess. Wow, but that was some gas. You can’t even smell it!”
I got slowly to my feet.
“Let’s try that staircase,” I said. “We can’t get through this way.”
After a moment the Chief, too, struggled to his feet and we made our way laboriously back down the corridor to the main hall. Fortunately the effects of the gas wore off very quickly, and by the time we reached the hall we were both practically ourselves again.
There was no one in the main hall as we entered it. But the doors to the banqueting room were still open and I could see our two men still on guard in there. The Chief and I started to cross the hall, making for the little door that led to the staircase to the floor above, but we were not to explore that floor just then, for while we were still in the middle of the hall, part of the wall at the far end of it suddenly flew open in two sections with a crash, and the Chief and I turned to find a crowd of swarthy, jabbering men pouring into the room.
“More of them!” shouted the Chief. “Come on, Clayton.”
He jumped forward to the big table in the middle of the hall, overturned it and swung it round to form a barrier between us and our oncoming enemies, just as the latter caught sight of us.
I fell on my knees beside him and drew my revolver. The newcomers set up a yell and started for us, and quickly the Chief put his whistle to his lips and blew it for all he was worth, at the same time opening fire with the revolver in his other hand.