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He re, he must have broken and plucked it out The blood, he recalled, was spurting freely as he had carried Beatrice through the wreckage and up to the first landing, where she had regained partial consciousness

Then he shuddered at recollection of that stealthy, apelike creeping of the Horde scouts in a after the blood-track; their frightful agility in cla the aloft on the death-hunt

He had evaded them, from story to story Beatrice, able noalk, had helped hi rocks, wrench stairs loose and block the way

And so, wounding their pursuers, yet tracked always by , where by aid of the rifle barrel as a lever they had been able to bring a whole wall crashing down, to choke the passage That had brought silence For a ti, dusty avalanche of the wall, hurled down the stairway, Stern knew by the grunts and shrieks which had arisen that some of the Horde had surely perished--how many, he could not tell A score or two at the very least, he ardently hoped

Fear, at any rate, had been temporarily injected into the rest For the attack had not yet been renewed Outside in the forest, no sign of the Horde, no sound A disconcerting, ominous calm had settled like a pall Even the birds, recovered froun to hop about and take up their twittering little household tasks

As in a kind of clairvoyance, the engineer seeht For a little while, at least, there could be rest and peace But when darkness should have settled down-"If they'd only show the in an over weakness of blood-loss and exhaustion Not even his parched thirst, a veritable torture now, could keep his thoughts froain, I could score with--with lead--what's that I'ht himself back with a start, back to a full realization of the place But again the drowsiness gained on hiht he "We--could pick them off--from the s Pick them--off--pick--them--off--"

He slept Thus, often, wounded soldiers sleep, with troubled dreae of renewed battle whichand wakeless slumber