During the next few seconds we put in the hottest bit of work of the entire evening.
They came very close to rushing us at the start. I have a confused recollection of a mass of murderous-looking ruffians bearing down on us, firing as they came, while the table behind which we were sheltered cracked incessantly with the smack of their bullets.
My own revolver was full again fortunately, and the Chief’s seemed to be also, for we shot into the crowd of them again and again, bringing a man down with almost every shot.
But they kept on, and when they reached the table my revolver was empty. I jumped to my feet and dashed the butt of it between the eyes of a big Russian. His face streamed blood at the blow and he leapt back with a yell of pain, bearing back the men behind him. At the same moment the Chief got his second gun into action and fired past me as fast as he could work the trigger, his shots seeming to follow one another in a steady stream.
For a moment they fell back and I crouched down behind the table again, fumbling in my pocket for fresh cartridges and cursing my clumsy fingers. Then there was a yell from behind me as the two guards from the banquet room rushed up, and four revolvers began to stream death over our shoulders into the huddled mass of men ahead of us. A moment later other revolvers began to crack from the different doorways, as the Chief’s forces came running back to the hall in response to his whistle.
And suddenly the men ahead of us broke and dashed, yelling, from the open doorway into the corridor which led to the room of the voices, leaving eight or ten of their numbers silent and motionless, or still convulsed with agony, on the floor in front of us.
Revolvers were still cracking near at hand, however, and I looked beyond our fallen foes and realized suddenly that I was gazing out into the night. The two sections of the wall that had opened inward like folding doors disclosed a short wide hallway beyond them. And beyond that was what looked like the original wide front door of the house. Two or three of the enemy were still sheltering behind the edges of this doorway, and firing, not at us but out into the night. Beyond them I could see the dark outlines of trees. And in among these trees I could make out the occasional spitting flash of a revolver. Evidently our reënforcements had arrived, had met with resistance and had driven the Emperor’s forces in upon us.
This time the Chief was mad clear through. “Get back to that room, you two, and guard those girls,” he shouted. Then he raised his revolvers, which he had managed to reload somehow, and began calmly picking off the men in the doorway.
At the same moment our fellows outside, who had heard the Chief’s whistle, decided to rush the place. For there came a crescendo of shots from closer at hand, and suddenly the last of the defenders of the doorway pitched forward on his face and the little hallway was full of our men.
“Come on, you men, clean this place up!” yelled the Chief. “Shoot them down and shoot to kill. We’ve lost enough men over this business!” He pointed into the corridor. “After them!” he shouted.