“As you were!  Back, men! back!” rang out the deep, imperious voice of Kilbride.  The stern command checked the onrush of maddened men.  “D’you hear me?” he thundered, “Take cover again immediately—­everyone. . . .  I’ll give the word when to rush him, and that’s not yet.”

It said much for the discipline of the Force that his commands were obeyed, albeit in somewhat mutinous fashion.  The inspector turned to Slavin with fell eyes.  “Christ!” he said, “there’s two men gone!  I won’t chance any more lives in this fashion!  I’ll give him ten minutes to surrender and if he don’t give up the ghost then . . . .  I’ll do what an emergency like this calls for—­what I came prepared to do, if necessary.  Sergeant! take charge of this side until further orders; I’m going down the bank to the other party awhile.”

He stole away through the brush and presently they all heard his stentorian tones ring out from the river bank.  “Gully! oh, Gully!  It’s Inspector Kilbride speaking.  I’ll give you ten minutes to come out and give yourself up.  If you don’t—­well! . . .  I’ve got a charge of dynamite here . . . and a fuse, and I’ll blow you and your shack to hell, my man.  It’s up to you—­now!”

There was no response to the inspector’s ultimatum.  Amidst dead silence the prescribed time slowly passed.  Fifteen minutes—­then, a gasping murmur of excitement arose from those on the eastern front, as in the rapidly whitening dawn they saw Kilbride suddenly reappear around the northern and blank end of the building.  For some few moments they watched his actions in awe-struck, breathless silence as, with bent back, he busied himself with his dangerous task.

Presently he straightened up.  “Now!  Look out, everybody!” he bawled.  He struck a match and applied it to something that immediately began to splutter, and then he retreated a safe distance northward.  All eyes were glued, as if fascinated, to the deadly, sputtering fuse.  Soon came the dull, muffled roar of an explosion.  The walls of the building sagged outwards, the roof caved in, and the whole structure seemed to collapse like a pack of cards, amid a cloud of dust.

For some few seconds the party gazed fearfully at the work of destruction; then a loud cheer went up, and with one accord all dashed forward, filled with eager, morbid curiosity as to what they might find buried beneath the ruins.

Suddenly, midway between the brush and their objective they checked their onrush and halted, staring in speechless amazement.  Pushing his way up, apparently from some hole beneath a pile of debris, appeared the figure of a huge man.

In their excitement the attackers had overlooked the possibility of a cellar existing below the stone foundation of the dwelling.  At this juncture the party from the river bank was rapidly approaching the ruins from its western side.  The posse was in a dilemma.  Neither party dare fire at its quarry between them for fear of hitting each other.