The Mad King Part 28

"I am an American war correspondent," replied Barney, "but if the Austrians get hold of me now it will be mighty difficult to convince them that I am not a spy." And then a sudden determination came to him to trust his fate to this unknown girl, whose face, even, he had never seen. "I am entirely at your mercy," he said. "There are Austrian soldiers in the street below. You have but to call to them to send me before the firing squad--or, you can let me remain here until I can find an opportunity to get away in safety. I am trying to reach Serbia."

"Why do you wish to reach Serbia?" asked the girl suspiciously.

"I have discovered too many enemies in Austria tonight to make it safe for me to remain," he replied, "and, further, my original intention was to report the war from the Serbian side."

The girl hesitated for a while, evidently in thought.

"They are moving on," suggested Barney. "If you are going to give me up you'd better do it at once."

"I'm not going to give you up," replied the girl. "I'm going to keep you prisoner until Stefan returns--he will know best what to do with you. Now you must come with me and be locked up. Do not try to escape--I have a revolver in my hand," and to give her prisoner physical proof of the weapon he could not see she thrust the muzzle against his side.

"I'll take your word for the gun," said Barney, "if you'll just turn it in the other direction. Go ahead--I'll follow you."

"No, you won't," replied the girl. "You'll go first; but before that you'll raise your hands above your head. I want to search you."

Barney did as he was bid and a moment later felt deft fingers running over his clothing in search of concealed weapons. Satisfied at last that he was unarmed, the girl directed him to precede her, guiding his steps from behind with a hand upon his arm. Occasionally he felt the muzzle of her revolver touch his body. It was a most unpleasant sensation.

They crossed the room to a door which his captor directed him to open, and after they had pa.s.sed through and she had closed it behind them the girl struck a match and lit a candle which stood upon a little bracket on the part.i.tion wall. The dim light of the tallow dip showed Barney that he was in a narrow hall from which several doors opened into different rooms. At one end of the hall a stairway led to the floor below, while at the opposite end another flight disappeared into the darkness above.

"This way," said the girl, motioning toward the stairs that led upward.

Barney had turned toward her as she struck the match, obtaining an excellent view of her features. They were clear-cut and regular. Her eyes were large and very dark. Dark also was her hair, which was piled in great heaps upon her finely shaped head. Altogether the face was one not easily to be forgotten. Barney could scarce have told whether the girl was beautiful or not, but that she was striking there could be no doubt.

He preceded her up the stairway to a door at the top. At her direction he turned the k.n.o.b and entered a small room in which was a cot, an ancient dresser and a single chair.

"You will remain here," she said, "until Stefan returns. Stefan will know what to do with you." Then she left him, taking the light with her, and Barney heard a key turn in the lock of the door after she had closed it. Presently her footfalls died out as she descended to the lower floors.

"Anyhow," thought the American, "this is better than the Austrians.

I don't know what Stefan will do with me, but I have a rather vivid idea of what the Austrians would have done to me if they'd caught me sneaking through the alleys of Burgova at midnight."

Throwing himself on the cot Barney was soon asleep, for though his predicament was one that, under ordinary circ.u.mstances might have made sleep impossible, yet he had so long been without the boon of slumber that tired nature would no longer be denied.

When he awoke it was broad daylight. The sun was pouring in through a skylight in the ceiling of his tiny chamber. Aside from this there were no windows in the room. The sound of voices came to him with an uncanny distinctness that made it seem that the speakers must be in this very chamber, but a glance about the blank walls convinced him that he was alone.

Presently he espied a small opening in the wall at the head of his cot. He rose and examined it. The voices appeared to be coming from it. In fact, they were. The opening was at the top of a narrow shaft that seemed to lead to the bas.e.m.e.nt of the structure--apparently once the shaft of a dumb-waiter or a chute for refuse or soiled clothes.

Barney put his ear close to it. The voices that came from below were those of a man and a woman. He heard every word distinctly.

"We must search the house, fraulein," came in the deep voice of a man.

"Whom do you seek?" inquired a woman's voice. Barney recognized it as the voice of his captor.

"A Serbian spy, Stefan Drontoff," replied the man. "Do you know him?"

There was a considerable pause on the girl's part before she answered, and then her reply was in such a low voice that Barney could barely hear it.

"I do not know him," she said. "There are several men who lodge here. What may this Stefan Drontoff look like?"

"I have never seen him," replied the officer; "but by arresting all the men in the house we must get this Stefan also, if he is here."

"Oh!" cried the girl, a new note in her voice, "I guess I know now whom you mean. There is one man here I have heard them call Stefan, though for the moment I had forgotten it. He is in the small attic-room at the head of the stairs. Here is a key that will fit the lock. Yes, I am sure that he is Stefan. You will find him there, and it should be easy to take him, for I know that he is unarmed. He told me so last night when he came in."

"The devil!" muttered Barney Custer; but whether he referred to his predicament or to the girl it would be impossible to tell. Already the sound of heavy boots on the stairs announced the coming of men--several of them. Barney heard the rattle of accouterments--the clank of a scabbard--the sc.r.a.ping of gun b.u.t.ts against the walls.

The Austrians were coming!

He looked about. There was no way of escape except the door and the skylight, and the door was impossible.

Quickly he tilted the cot against the door, wedging its legs against a crack in the floor--that would stop them for a minute or two. Then he wheeled the dresser beneath the skylight and, placing the chair on top of it, scrambled to the seat of the latter. His head was at the height of the skylight. To force the skylight from its frame required but a moment. A key entered the lock of the door from the opposite side and turned. He knew that someone without was pus.h.i.+ng.

Then he heard an oath and heavy battering upon the panels. A moment later he had drawn himself through the skylight and stood upon the roof of the building. Before him stretched a series of uneven roofs to the end of the street. Barney did not hesitate. He started on a rapid trot toward the adjoining roof. From that he clambered to a higher one beyond.

On he went, now leaping narrow courts, now dropping to low sheds and again clambering to the heights of the higher buildings, until he had come almost to the end of the row. Suddenly, behind him he heard a hoa.r.s.e shout, followed by the report of a rifle. With a whir, a bullet flew a few inches above his head. He had gained the last roof--a large, level roof--and at the shot he turned to see how near to him were his pursuers.

Fatal turn!

Scarce had he taken his eyes from the path ahead than his foot fell upon a gla.s.s skylight, and with a loud crash he plunged through amid a shower of broken gla.s.s.

His fall was a short one. Directly beneath the skylight was a bed, and on the bed a fat Austrian infantry captain. Barney lit upon the pit of the captain's stomach. With a howl of pain the officer catapulted Barney to the floor. There were three other beds in the room, and in each bed one or two other officers. Before the American could regain his feet they were all sitting on him--all except the infantry captain. He lay shrieking and cursing in a painful attempt to regain his breath, every atom of which Barney had knocked out of him.

The officers sitting on Barney alternately beat him and questioned him, interspersing their interrogations with lurid profanity.

"If you will get off of me," at last shouted the American, "I shall be glad to explain--and apologize."

They let him up, scowling ferociously. He had promised to explain, but now that he was confronted by the immediate necessity of an explanation that would prove at all satisfactory as to how he happened to be wandering around the rooftops of Burgova, he discovered that his powers of invention were entirely inadequate.

The need for explaining, however, was suddenly removed. A shadow fell upon them from above, and as they glanced up Barney saw the figure of an officer surrounded by several soldiers looking down upon him.

"Ah, you have him!" cried the newcomer in evident satisfaction.

"It is well. Hold him until we descend."

A moment later he and his escort had dropped through the broken skylight to the floor beside them.

"Who is the mad man?" cried the captain who had broken Barney's fall. "The a.s.sa.s.sin! He tried to murder me."

"I cannot doubt it," replied the officer who had just descended, "for the fellow is no other than Stefan Drontoff, the famous Serbian spy!"

"Himmel!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the officers in chorus. "You have done a good day's work, lieutenant."

"The firing squad will do a better work in a few minutes," replied the lieutenant, with a grim pointedness that took Barney's breath away.

III

BEFORE THE FIRING SQUAD

They marched Barney before the staff where he urged his American nationality, pointing to his credentials and pa.s.ses in support of his contention.

The general before whom he had been brought shrugged his shoulders.