Page:Cruise of the Jasper B (1916).djvu/316

 "Damn it, man, anything's better than roasting to death!"

Loge raised his hand and sped a last bullet at the detective, grazing Barnstable's temple.

"Come in and get me!" he shouted.

Barnstable fired, just as a whirl of smoke blew in front of Loge.

Cleggett thought the outlaw staggered, but he was not certain.

A moment later a portion of the roof fell; then the east wall crashed in. Morris's was a blazing ruin.

"He has perished in the flames," said Wilton Barnstable. "So ends Logan Black!"

"More like he's blowed his head off," said Cap'n Abernethy. "If you was to ask me, that's what I'd do."

"He has done neither!" cried Cleggett. "He has taken to the tunnel. That man will fight to the last breath."

And without waiting to see whether the others followed him or not Cleggett set off at top speed for the Jasper B.

With a dagger between his teeth, his pistol in its holster, and his electric, watchman's lantern in his pocket he entered the tunnel and crawled for-