With a wild shout, Locke charged on them all.
Taken by surprise, the brutes holding Eva were easy to handle, for the
others had gone.
Fortunately, the automatic which Eva had been carrying was lying,
neglected, on the floor. Locke snatched it up and, shooting one of the
thugs, managed to cower the other.
Half supporting Eva, he retreated through the torture-chamber into an
outer room. There was no time to lose. Already the alarm had been spread
to the other emissaries and Chinamen, and it was only a matter of
seconds when all the murderous crew would again be piling after them.
Locke looked about in desperation. There was a window. He flung it open.
Below, the air-shaft or court was blind. But there was a balcony by
which he could reach an adjoining low roof. He had no idea where it
might lead, but any unknown danger was preferable to the known dangers
that threatened behind him.
Through the window he passed with Eva, and so across balconies and roofs
until they came to a fire-escape, which they descended.
In another moment they were free of Chinatown.
Many a curious glance was cast at them, a young girl, well gowned, and a
disheveled white man in Chinese garb.
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