Page:In the name of a woman (1900).djvu/31

 "That is not in my instructions."

"Then I don't believe you have it. Leave the house before there is any further trouble."

"I must do my duty. Georgiew," he called to one of the two men, who had kept close to the door in fear, but now stepped up to his leader's side.

"Who has signed your order?" asked the Countess, interposing.

"One whose authority is sufficient for me."

"But not for me," she cried. I turned, and found to my surprise that she had come to my side, and was staring with fixed intensity into the man's face. "Not for me," she repeated.

"You must be prepared to accompany me, madame, nevertheless, and I trust you will come at once, and without causing trouble. We are three to one, sir, and fully armed; resistance will be useless," he added to me.

"If you were thirty to one I would not give way unless you produced your authority," I answered, my blood beginning to heat under his manner and tone.

"I ask you for the last time, madame, to come with me," and, with a sign to the others, he made ready to attack me.

"Aye, for the last time," said my companion, between her teeth, and before I could guess her intention, she gave a startling proof of her desperate resource and deadly recklessness.

With a suddenness that took me entirely by surprise, she snatched the revolver from me, and levelling it with quick aim, she fired two shots in rapid succession with deadly effect, for the two men standing near us fell dead at our feet, shot through the head. The third, who had kept near the door, with a coward's prudence,