"Remember, Beatrice," he commanded, "if I'm killed, use the revolver on yourself before you let them take you!"
"I know!" she cried. And, crouching beside him in the half light, she, too, awaited what seemed the inevitable.
The door swung open.
There stood the patriarch again, arms extended, face eager with a passionate hope and longing, a great pride even at that strange and pregnant moment.
"Peace, friends!" he cried. "I give you peace! Strike me not down with those terrible weapons of yours! For verily I bring you hope again!"
"Hope? What d'you mean?" shouted Stern.
Through the opened door he caught vague glimpses in the luminous fog of many spearmen gathered near--of excited gestures and the wild waving of arms--of other figures that, half seen, ran swiftly here and there.
"Speak up, you! What's the matter? What's wanted?" demanded the engineer, keeping his automatic sighted at the doorway. "What's all this infernal row? If your people there think they're going to play horse with us, they're mightily mistaken! You tell them the first man that steps through that door to get us never'll take another step! Quick! What's up?"
"Come!" answered the aged man, his voice high and tremulous above the howling tumult and the roar of the great gas-well. "Come, now! The Lanskaarn--they attack! Come! I have spoken of your weapons to my people. Come, fight for us! And verily, if we win--"
"What kind of a trick are you putting up on us, anyhow?" roared Stern with thrice-heated rage. "None o' that now! If your people want us, let 'em come in here and get us! But as for being fooled that way and tricked into coming out--"
"I swear the truth!" supplicated the patriarch, raising his withered hand on high. "If you come not, you must verily die, oh, friends! But if you come--"
"Your own life's the first to pay for any falsehood now."
"I give it gladly! The truth, I swear it! Oh, listen, while there is still time, and come! Come!"
"What about it, girl?" cried Stern. "Are you with me? Will you take a chance on it?"
"There's nothing else to do, Allan. They've got us, anyway. And--and I think the old man's telling the truth. Hear that, now--"
Off somewhere toward the fortification wall that edged the beach, sounds of indisputable conflict were arising. The howls, cries, shrieks, blows were not to be mistaken.
Stern's resolution was instant.
"I'm with you, old man!" he shouted. "But remember your promise. And if you fail me--it's your finish!
"Come, Beta! Stick close to me! If we fall, we'll go down together. It's both or neither. Come on--come on!"