"He has gone"; and the speaker added the story about the supposed shot and subsequent disappearance of Ga.s.sen.
The men listened very intently, and kept shooting black angry glances of suspicion at me. They guessed what had occurred.
"Where is he?" they demanded, turning to me, when the "general"
finished.
I was on the horns of a dilemma. If I made any show of force I should be giving the lie to the "general"s" statement.
"He went off down the river to look for you," I answered.
""Down" the river?" cried another quickly. "You hear that?"
"Well, up the river then," I said sullenly.
"You shot him. That"s the truth," came the retort, sharp as a pistol report.
This appeared to give me the opportunity I sought of being able to take out my revolver without any apparent hostile intention. "Here"s my revolver. You can see for yourself it hasn"t been fired."
But it was as bad a blunder as I could have made. One of them craned his neck forward as if to satisfy himself of the truth of what I had said; and then gave a cry of rage. "It"s Ga.s.sen"s pistol. There"s his mark on it. I know it."
The rest followed his pointing finger.
"Well, anyway it"s loaded in all six chambers; and it"s the only one that"s going to be drawn now." I spoke very coolly and watched the three newcomers closely.
"What about no treachery now?" cried one, turning to the elder man.
"You"ve brought this on yourselves by suspecting me. You"d better go before there"s any trouble," I said to the three. If I could get rid of them, the others would give little trouble enough.
"You"d better go," said the "general" nervously.
They were perplexed what to do, and stood hesitating near the door. The sight of my weapon had a very wholesome restraining effect. One of them began to back out, and it looked as if I was going to get my way and frighten them off.
But just as this appeared most probable and I was beginning to breathe more freely again, trouble came from the man, Schmidt, whom I had treated with contemptuous indifference as of no account.
He had been standing in the corner to which I had thrust him on the arrival of the others, and had not spoken a word. I had almost forgotten him, indeed; but I was to pay for that forgetfulness now.
As I stood facing the others he was on my left hand, and he hurled something at me with great force. It struck my revolver hand and the weapon dropped. When I recovered my surprise I was looking down the barrels of three pistols pointed straight at my head.
"No shooting here, Marx," cried the elder man earnestly. "It isn"t safe."
"Why didn"t you say that when he was covering us?" was the angrily spoken reply. "He shall pay for Ga.s.sen"s death."
But terror of the consequences made the man earnest, and for a second he stood right in the way of the pointed weapons. They pushed him hurriedly aside; but I had been able to use the moment. I clapped my hand to my pocket feeling for the weapon I had annexed, but instead I felt the bomb I had taken from the old Baron, and raised it high so that all should see it just as the man was thrust to one side.
"I"ll send him to h.e.l.l for that," declared the more daring man.
"Then we"ll all go there together," I cried in a ringing voice. "I can do it with this."
One of them fired at once, and that I was not killed was due only to the "general"s" terror. He threw up the fellow"s arm as he fired.
"For G.o.d"s sake," he exclaimed. "Are you all mad?"
"You fool," was the reply. "The thing"s only a sham."
Again he was being pushed aside when another man came rushing in.
"The police!" he cried. And at the same instant we heard a loud peremptory knocking at one of the street doors below.
In a moment panic held every man in the room in its thrall. Dead silence fell on us.
But I doubt if any one of them was more utterly confounded than I or more desperately embarra.s.sed. To fall into the hands of the police was better than to be shot down like a dog; but it meant a hundred hazards for me to be caught under such circ.u.mstances.
We all stood staring at one another like a set of wax figures, the common peril knitting us together in a bond of panic.
Then the knocking was repeated with even louder clamour than before.
CHAPTER XXV
AN AWKWARD PLIGHT INDEED
The second clamour of the police at the doors below brought me to my senses; and luckily I was the first man to throw off the apathy of alarm which their coming had caused.
If any of us were to escape, it could only be by the river; and I set about making a desperate attempt to get away by that means and to take the Baron with me.
As I had had to carry my life in my hands when coming into the building, and had been fully alive to the fact that my safety might depend upon my knowing how to get out of it again without even a second"s hesitation, I had observed with scrupulous care the means of exit.
The room in which we all were was the larger of the pair of offices, the two doors of which I had seen when hiding in the outer warehouse. The part.i.tions were of rough matchboarding, and I noticed now that the door fastened with a spring lock.
The only light we had was from a lantern standing on the table, and my first step was to knock this off the table. I used the instant of consternation which followed to spring at the fellow who had entered last and was holding the door, thrust him away, and slam the door.
The hubbub and confusion which followed were indescribable, and the air reeked with the curses and execrations of the men, who appeared to have only a very slight acquaintance with the plan of the place.
They were all jammed together in a body, close to the door, and struggling, swearing, and fighting one another in their frantic efforts to get out.
Not one of them had a thought to spare for the helpless old man on the table, and I picked him up and ran through to the smaller room beyond.
One of the five had known of this other exit, and he was at the door as I reached it. He got out before me and turned to call to the rest.
Which of them it was I don"t know, but I struck at him and hit him hard enough to send him sprawling along the floor of the warehouse; and before he could regain his feet I was well on my way down the stairs to the wharf.
The police meantime were thundering at the doors which let out upon the lane and beginning to break them in, and as I reached the bottom I heard the men above rushing after me down the stairs. It was a question of seconds now.
I slammed behind me the door which let out on to the wharf, and a glance showed me where the boat lay in which the men had arrived. I darted to it, slid the Baron into the bows, and with my heart in my mouth cast the painter loose and jumped in, just as the rest of the men came streaming out on to the wharf.
They gave a yell of rage as they caught sight of me, and one of them--the brute who had been so in tent on taking my life--ran along the stage and jumped after me.