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Show my sentence in the middle. A dim. opened, nnd the voice of Uelene dr-Cespedes dr-Cespedes spoke. "What is his I hear, mon ami? she asked. "Are you mad? This gin is the spoil of the hand. She belong to all of us. We are holding her fur a bigger stake. Shall we let you ha her for your own satisfaction? Yon take too " "You are jealous," snarled Teuton. "I say I want her, and I am going to have her. I am tired of women like you." (To Be Continued) ! TREASURE myseTT, TnTT managed TbpTaT-:"iTe Tum. Hugh, without any hesitntiou, yelled : "One at a time!" and slipped Into the sewer mouth between two waves. King followed I.im, and Watty and J brought up tin rear. We were cheered to find the place less terrifying than we had imagined it. The water was thigh-deep, instead of knee-deep, ns it had been when we escaped from the dungeon; but once you had fumbled your way by torchlight over the jagged moraine thnt blocked the first thirty feet, the footing became safer and the water shallowed. Just the same, I never think of the place without shuddering. It was deathly silent, except for the ceaseless cease-less seepage of moisture, the occasional occasion-al muffled boom of a wave spattering over Its mouth nnd the squeaking of the gigantic black rats that swam ahead of us or wriggled Into cracks In the serried courses of the masonry. Our electric torches shone feebly on the mossy walls, with their sickening fungus growths, their bright green, pendent weeds. Amorphous plants hnng from the root The atmosphere was slimy, noisome, unclean. And always al-ways there was the "drip-drip-drip" of water. We breathed more comfortably wneD our torches revealed overhead the bare of the stone grating In the floor of the dungeon. "All quiet above," whispered Hugh, after listening Intently. "Dark as h i, too. I gay, how much farther do you suppose this drain goes!" He trained his torch Into the thtek murk of the Immense tube which extended ex-tended beyond the gratlnjj as far a out eyes could penetrate. "I'm inclined to believa It eontlnuea Into the city, probably as far as the site of the forum of Theodoslus," King replied, his scholar's interest awake. "That was a region of palaces which would have required such a work of engineering. It should be well worth exploring." "Never mind that now," urged Hugh. "We have another task on hand." CHAPTER XII Continued. iJS Hetty reached for 'er gun, ' a so did L But somebody grabbed i . and somebody else pushed me i C" at tlie same time a chap lashed !el with an iron-weighted club. 'E ! 'Lt 'e'd knocked my brains out, '. Muld, t excePf 1 fe" 80 fast ;! ! account of beta' pushed. I was i j; a level ol the rail when the ll ,t 'it me mos the blow went f !0 tie rail. Splintered it, it did, j: L ludshlp- And but for that 1 wouldn't be 'ere." ind Miss Betty r questioned Hugh eagerly. ,.j iirs know, rour ludshlp. When 1 u anything again I was lyin' on tte floor ' the cockpit, dusk was com-tug com-tug cn and the launch was drifted far wt to sea. They'd stopped the en-jice. en-jice. 1 don't know 'ow I got back 'ere. My 'ead went round and runi. But' I thought If 1 could get to you, joor ludshlp nnd gentlemen, maybe n coul-1 think of something else to jo. Just give me a chance to lay my Bii m that 'ere Tootoo 1 I'll bash la 'ead for 'im." "Hey had a Bpare trick ready," j cemmented Nikka. ."Our visit to HI1-b1 HI1-b1 was part of a plot to get hold of Betty, l'on see, they would ha- aught hei, whether she had gone sail-lug sail-lug or not." "You said this afternoon we had our back to the wall," Bald Hugh. "You're He pried up the grating with Watty's Wat-ty's crowbar, the butt of which we rested on the ledge In which the grating grat-ing fitted. This secured a space sufficiently suf-ficiently wide for us to squeeze througn, and after all of us had climbed up we eased the grating back Into its bed, so that there was no trace remaining of our entrance. The dungeon was the same barren cube of dasty stone that we had left by virtue of Watkins' aid. The ropes that had bound un were still on the floor where we had cast them. The Cjor we had broken leaned against the wall. Obviously, Tokalji and his people had never even suspected how we escaped. It was five minutes to eleven when we gained the dungeon, and we knew that Nikka must be at a loss to account ac-count for our failure to signal Lim. He might suppose us to be casualties of the storm, and in desperation, attack alone on his own account. So we wasted no time, beyond shaking the water from our clothes. The lower passage and cellars were deserted, but as we climbed the stairs leading to the central hall opening on the litle atrium between the Garden of the Cedars and the large chamber which Tokalji occupied we heard a distant murmur of voices in disagreement. disagree-ment. Investigation proved the hall to be unoccupied, and we were presently grouped on its uneven floor, with only a curtain separating us from the drama going on in the atrium. The rain was drumming down overhead ; the wind howled with undiminished force ; and at intervals the thunder boomed like a barrage of 155s. "No, you are wrong, Toutou, it Is everybody's business," said Hilyer in French. "You may be chief, but you have no right to risk common property," pro- tiii t rniiiirmM mandud Vernon King indignantly. ' ' "This will be a nasty affair, professor," pro-fessor," returned Nikka. "You ought to say out. We are younger men, and we are used to Lhis kind of thing." "Betty is my daughter, and I am as able to fight for her aa any uf you," ansvered King. "I know how to handle a pistol." "We ought not to refuse, you know," said Hugh. "Every man ig going to count" "I certainly expect to be counted," replied King. "Me, too, your ludshlp and Mr. Nikka, Nik-ka, sir," spQke up Watty, lunging to hla feet. "Yes, I will, gentleman. You give tie another glass of that, 'era whisky or arak or whatever It Is, and I'll fight 'em all by myself. Yes, 1 will. And I guess I can swing a crowbar, crow-bar, If I 'ave got a bump on njy 'ead. Let me at 'em, gentlemen, only let ma That's all I ask." It was beginning to rain when we left the hotel, with occasional peal of thunder; but we welcomed the change in the weather as a factor aiding aid-ing the surprise attack we had intended. in-tended. At the Galata end of the lower low-er bridge, which was deserted as usual after dark, we dismissed our taxi, and held a final brief council of war in a patch of shadows next to the bridge abutment King, Hugh, Watkins and I were to embark on the Curlew, while Nikka and Wasso Mikall tramped to the Khan of the Georgians and rallied Mikali'j six young men. Then they were to go to Sokaki Masyerl and wait for a pistol shot, which would be the signal that we had passed through the drain and were at grips with the enemy. Hugh and Nikka compared watches and agreed that we should be in TokaljI's house not later than half-past half-past ten. -.. - The rain let up as we shook hands and wish ' each other luck, but by the time the Curlew was chugging down the Golden Horn it had set in again with tripled violence, lashed on by a notheast gale. At Intervals broad splotches of lightning bathed tho city to our right in a ghostly greenish glow. And when we emerged into the Bosphorus we found a fairly high sea running, but the Hunch sturdily thrust her bow into the waves and rode buoyantly buoy-antly over them. We cautiously felt our way along, lights out, motor running run-ning at half speed, taking bearings whenever the jagged lightning streaks Illuminated the waters. I was worried by the frequency of the lightning displays, but fortunately, as we sighted the round tower on the walls, which was our first landmark for Tokalji's house, there was a lull in the storm. We were also favored In having the old sea walls act as a lee for us and we worked in closer to the shore. The waves moderated, and the fish-hook curve of the ruined jetty broke their remaining force. When Watkins had made fast bow and stern lines to a couple of masses of battered masonry the Curlew floated almost as easily as at her moorings by the Man-o'-war dock. But the difficulties of navigation in the darkness and the necessity for extreme care had slowed our progress, and, we were some minutes min-utes behind our schedule. The rocks of the jetty, too, were awash, and it was as much as your life was worth to slip, for n fall might mean a broken head or limb. At one point, indeed, several of us lost the jetty altogether and were obliged to swim half a dozen strokes to the beach. Watkins, who insisted on arming himself with a crowbar, would have drowned 1' Hugh had not hauled him in by the scruff of the neck. It was Impossible to see anything, except once when a lightning light-ning flash streaked the sky and struck with a stunning report In Scutari across the Straits. And then we were so afraid of being discovered that we froze stiff as close to the rock3 as possible. The beach, like the jetty, was under un-der water. The waves lapped up to the foot of the walls, and we stumbled stum-bled desperately OTer submerged rocks and bowlders. Watkins, just ahead of me in line, tripped, and very nesrly knocked my brains out with his infernal in-fernal crowbar. I bogged him to drop It, but he doggedly refused. "I'm no knife fighter, Mister Jack, sir," he said, "nnd I'm Intending to give the persons that 'It me a tnste of their own stew like." We Identified the opening of the sewer by the hollow, booming sound with which, every now nnd then, an unusually high wave would roll over its lip. It sounded like the beating of a watery bass drum. The rain was driving down again, nnd the wir.d , blew overhead with a shrill vehemence that was deafening. "We'll never he able to got through that 'ell-'ole tonight, Mister Jack, sir." screamed Watkins In my ear. ''We'd be drowned wilh the rats." I was snmewli:it of Watty's opinion, "We 'Ad Run Out Beyond tho Princess ' Islands." 'W't. They've licked us. Our only nce Is to clean them up." we room telephone rang. King an- vo:c It. Vi"nd him np," he said. And to "A KS'Psy asking for you." j will be Wasso Mikall," cried " . ;a- "Ho must have learned some-I some-I thought he would. Don't be l';;","'""m!l, Hugh. This hand is a h ' iiy from being played out. It -is I thought all along: we have 1(1 meet savagery with savgery. It " c" "f kill or be killed." .Bett-T!" exclaimed Vernon Think of her ! What will they Mkl,"'", tllilllilnS of her," retorted ,, we ope lo rescue her we (; : strike hard. Give them time, let she wn, Klllen tllelp positlon-nnd or r, 80 t0 some harem In Anatolia von r l" rrocm'er In Salonika. I tell m ' We nre n-'ing with men ,.,, '"n,en who Have no mercy, who tt'di fr amma's. who are animals, lacet ti nW 0U' Nlkka Zaranko will There " 00 Ulelr own Sroun" iW,,"'!8, a knock on the door. ; !? dress ftered' hIs parish gyi-; gyi-; tem , strikinS contrast to the 'ert'onni lDgs and our own con-j con-j m garments. !sl S0U' ,son of my sister." be k In S,, ',u u young nren- watcb" btaj Tohm- Syeri m evening, die in 7" 18 Party carry In a bun- 1L. nas,od that you should know ("' u'e turn', n'7 ancle' 1 tlmnk yu V shall m'l 13 a n,gllt of blood-tio blood-tio ri.nl .d'P our bl!Ules before -My es tomorrow." Snk;1, wilh 'S gla('" rI,liel "'asso ,u'uiv ti easor- T1"-,i1' 'lands S"'J- ""u-i,"0, WUh n,y lILHile," he yu 111(1' you 11,111 -Tack think !r,!nr"riso m! ,",f 8i,n in l"a.v by ;,Jat ,.(,, 1Ck U'ri'Ugli the drain? " S!l'-vt em " 115 a c"a"ee to force 0 '''cn h n'nw' 1,11,1 we should : U,U I going io je7". de tested Sandra's resonant voice. Toutou snarled something in his guttural, gut-tural, indistinct, animal speech. "like her, and that's enough," It concluded. "I'm tired of the rest of you. Bunglers, every one." "Have It your own way," said Serge, "but it's not business. She's worth so much to us." "One might suppose you a green youth," cut in Maude Uilyer's frigid tones. "Why should you endanger our coup for a colorless chit like " "I say there is no risk," snapped Toutou. "What do I care for them? "What does it matter what they " "Tes, yes," interrupted Hilyer, "but you Continentals don't appreciate the Anglo-Saxons' feeling about their women. wom-en. Xcru " "Have done," bellowed Toutou with a sudden flame of temper. "Urrr-rr-rrhhh ! Am I not the master? I want her, end I shall have her I Go I Go I I say, or shall you behold Toutou's knife." They evidently went, for we could hear the shuffling of feet, with an undercurrent un-dercurrent of muttered curses and objurgations. ob-jurgations. Hugh started forward, pistol in hand, but I checked him. This was no time for unpremeditated action. ac-tion. There was a moment wt silence nnd a woman's cry of hatred. "Leave me alone, you beast I If you touch me, I'll bite you I You can't bind my teeth. Ah" It was Detty's voice, nnd LTngh shook me off and was at the curtain with his hand on the folds before I could reach him. Hut reach him I did, and another Interruption helped me to restraiit him. King, his face while and his hr.nds shaking, joined us. Watkins lurked behind us. "Let me" gasped Hugh. "Tkr.'e's plenty of time, you fool," I hissed. "Wait! Somehody " I wn ?o!n. to say somebody might come back, and the somebody c;:t |
