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78 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

the firing, and the Italian guessed its object and humored the hope of the foe.

" You have done for me, you cowards," he screamed, and then gasped and fell heavily j but he was on his feet in a second, his knife clutched firmly in his right hand.

" Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed the leader at the top of his voice, and the rest joined him in chorus such a cruel, brutal laugh ! Then there was a scuffle and a rush, and the next moment the leader squeezed his body through the half-open door, and in an instant was seized and dragged through the room, and beyond the next door and into the little courtyard of the Aladdin's Palace under- ground, the great door swinging back, with a closing and shutting of automatic bolts like the ring of doom. Before he could hardly breathe the man from Elizabethgrad was disarmed and stamped upon.

" Wait, my friend, wait," said Ferrari, fastening the remaining bolts of the great door. The mob pouring into the breach of the previous door had evidently paused to look for the dead Ferrari and their live leader ; not finding them were puzzled, and before attacking the next barrier had spent some of their energies in ransacking the ware- house, which gave them a very satisfactory plunder.

Meanwhile Ferrari, taking his opponent by the throat, raised him to his feet. He was a powerful, low-browed, shaggy-haired Russian, in a sheepskin jacket, worn, no doubt, more particularly to please the mujiks, for whose interests he professed to be fighting. He was dazed and stunned, but shook himself free of Ferrari, and looked at him with a threatening eye.

"Well, Christian," said Ferrari. "Well thief, murderer, beast ! How will you die ? Will you be crucified ? That is a death you talk about a deal, you gentle religious folk. Ha, you brute, I have a great mind to lip you into a thousand pieces ! "