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I gazed about, mad with disappointment. Two doors opened from this to other

rooms. I ran to the nearer and listened. Yes, voices were coming from beyond

and one was a woman's, level and cold and filled with scorn. There was no terror

in it. It was Victory's.

I turned the knob and pushed the door inward just in time to see Menelek seize

the girl and drag her toward the far end of the apartment. At the same instant

there was a deafening roar just outside the palace--a shell had struck much

nearer than any of its predecessors. The noise of it drowned my rapid rush

across the room.

But in her struggles, Victory turned Menelek about so that he saw me. She was

striking him in the face with her clenched fist, and now he was choking her.

At sight of me, he gave voice to a roar of anger.

"What means this, slave?" he cried. "Out of here! Out of here! Quick, before I kill

you!"

But for answer I rushed upon him, striking him with the butt of the rifle. He

staggered back, dropping Victory to the floor, and then he cried aloud for the

guard, and came at me. Again and again I struck him; but his thick skull might

have been armor plate, for all the damage I did it.

He tried to close with me, seizing the rifle, but I was stronger than he, and,

wrenching the weapon from his grasp, tossed it aside and made for his throat

with my bare hands. I had not dared fire the weapon for fear that its report

would bring the larger guard stationed at the farther end of the corridor.

We struggled about the room, striking one another, knocking over furniture, and

rolling upon the floor. Menelek was a powerful man, and he was fighting for his

life. Continually he kept calling for the guard, until I succeeded in getting a grip

upon his throat; but it was too late. His cries had been heard, and suddenly the

door burst open, and a score of armed guardsmen rushed into the apartment.

Victory seized the rifle from the floor and leaped between me and them. I had the

black emperor upon his back, and both my hands were at his throat, choking the

life from him.

The rest happened in the fraction of a second. There was a rending crash above

us, then a deafening explosion within the chamber. Smoke and powder fumes

filled the room. Half stunned, I rose from the lifeless body of my antagonist just

in time to see Victory stagger to her feet and turn toward me. Slowly the smoke

cleared to reveal the shattered remnants of the guard. A shell had fallen through

The Lost Continent