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Page 66
"Hit, either of you?" he enquired tersely.
Yorke replied in the negative. "Mighty close shave for Burke here,
though" he added, "lucky I heard Gully cocking that blasted Luger of
his." He uttered a suppressed chuckle, "Burke's always one to go
cautioning others, and then lose his temper and expose himself."
For some few minutes they canvassed the situation in tense whispers,
lying prone in the brush with their carbines covering their objective.
"Sh-sh!" hissed the doctor suddenly. "Hark!"
With all their faculties on the stretch, they held their breaths and
listened intently. In the stillness they heard the unmistakable noise as
of a window being cautiously lifted. The sound came from the southern
end of the building.
Then they heard Redmond's voice ring out sharply from the bank: "No use,
Gully! I've got you covered! You can't make it from there! You'd
better give in, man."
There was an instant's silence, then--crack! came the crisp report of the
Luger. It was answered by the deep, reverberating bang! of a carbine,
and the crash of splintered glass and woodwork was followed by a boyish
laugh.
"Told you Reddy was there with the goods!" remarked Yorke, triumphantly,
to his superior, "don't suppose he got him though--Gully's too fly--he'd
duck into shelter the instant he'd fired. I'll bet he's doing some tall
thinking just now. Beggar's between the devil and the deep
sea--properly. He'll chuck up the sponge just now, you'll see."
"Eyah!" agreed Slavin, with an oath, "he's up against it. But Reddy down
there--I du not like th' idea av th' bhoy bein' all alone. Yorkey, yu'
shlink thru' th' brush an' down th' bank an' kape um company awhile. Th'
Docthor an' me'll kape th' front here covered."
A few minutes later, Yorke, after first challenging Redmond cautiously,
crept up beside his comrade below the sheltering river-bank.
"Did you get him?" he queried in a tense whisper.
"No, I don't think so," muttered Redmond disconsolately, "but--he d----d
near got me--look!"
He exhibited his Stetson hat. A clean bullet perforation showed in the
pinched-up top. "I could have got him--easy," he added, "when he first
opened the window. Wish I had, now--but you know what Burke said--about
getting him alive--I only loosed off after he'd thrown down on me. I was
scared for you and Burke, though! I could see you both backing up--after
he'd shot through the door."
Bang! A dull, muffled report detonated within the building. The ominous
echoes gradually died away, and the stillness of the night settled over
all once more.
The crouching policemen stared at each other strangely. "Hear that?"
ejaculated Redmond, with a startled oath, "By G----d! he's shot himself!
must have--it sounded muffled. . . . All over! I'll bet his brains--"
He broke off short and, shoving the barrel of his carbine over the edge
of the bank, he commenced to clamber up. "Wait a second! . . . Good
God, Red! don't do that!" snarled Yorke warningly. "He's as cunning as
a blasted _lobo_. May be it's only a tr--"
The entreaty died in his throat. Crack! A spurt of flame shot from the
opened window, and Redmond, with a gasping exclamation of rage and pain,
toppled backwards onto the shingle, his carbine clattering down beside
him. Fearful of relaxing his vigilance even at this crisis, the maddened
Yorke flung up his weapon and sent shot after shot crashing through the
open casement. All could hear the smashing, rending sounds of havoc his
bullets were creating within.
"Doctor!" he shouted. "Oh, Doctor! Come on round quick!" In a hoarse
aside he spat out feverishly, "Red! Red! my old son! . . . hit bad?
Where'd you get it?"
"Shoulder! Oh-h!" gasped poor Redmond, moaning and rolling on the
shingle in his agony, "Oh, Christ, it hurts!"
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