"Hold the lantern higher, Bev--" In the fury of the fight, he remembered
the risk and importance of not mentioning her name, and stopped
short. He was fighting fast but warily, for he realized that his present
adversary was no mean one. As the swords played back and forth in fierce
thrusts and parries, he spoke assuringly to Beverly: "Don't be
frightened! As soon as I finish with this fellow, we will go on! Ah!
Bravo! Well parried, my man! How the deuce could such a swordsman as you
become a cutthroat of Marlanx?"
Beverly had been standing still all this time holding the light high
above her head, according to her lover's orders, for she knew now that
such he was and that she loved him with all her heart. She was a weird
picture standing there as she watched Baldos fighting for their lives,
her beautiful face deathlike in its pallor. Not a cry escaped her lips,
as the sword-blades swished and clashed; she could hear the deep
breathing of the combatants in that tomb-like passage.
Suddenly she started and listened keenly. From behind her, back there in
the darkness, hurried footsteps were unmistakably approaching. What she
had heard, then, was not the scurrying of a rat. Some one was following
them. A terrible anguish seized her. Louder and nearer came the heavy
steps. "Oh, my God! Baldos!" she screamed in terror, "Another is
coming!"
"Have no fear, dear one!" he sung out gaily. His voice was infinitely
more cheerful than he felt, for he realized only too well the desperate
situation; he was penned in and forced to meet an attack from front and
rear. He fell upon his assailant with redoubled fury, aiming to finish
him before the newcomer could give aid.
From out of the gloom came a fiendish laugh. Instantly, the dark figure
of a man appeared, his face completely hidden by a broad slouch hat and
the long cloak which enveloped him. A sardonic voice hissed, "Trapped at
last! My lady and her lover thought to escape, did they!" The voice was
unfamiliar, but the atmosphere seemed charged with Marlanx. "Kill him,
Zem!" he shouted. "Don't let him escape you! I will take care of the
little witch, never fear!" He clutched at the girl and tried to draw her
to him.
"Marlanx! By all the gods!" cried Baldos in despair. He had wounded his
man several times, though not seriously. He dared not turn to Beverly's
aid.
The scene was thrilling, grewsome. Within this narrow, dimly-lighted
underground passage, with its musty walls sweating with dampness and
thick with the tangled meshes of the spider's web, a brave girt and her
lover struggled and fought back to back.
To her dismay, Beverly saw the point of a sword at her throat.
"Out of the way, girl," the man in the cloak snarled, furious at her
resistance. "You die as well as your lover unless you surrender. He
cannot escape me."