PRINCESS PROXY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20629, 30 July 1930, Page 18

PRINCESS PROXY.

BY. RUSSELL WARREN.

CHAPTER XXIII. 'THE CASTLII FALLS. Shall, after shell "fell and burst, and smoke began to obscure tho castle from view. Suddenly the guns stopped. There was a moment's pause, and then a frenzied burst of machine-gun stammering, rising in a jabbering cresce.ulo, and the uneven pattering of heavy rifle-fire. " Over the top," growled Devenish, and his hands twitchedThey watched and listened in silence for a few minutes. Then suddenly the rifle and machine-gun fire dropped to an occasional stray shot. For a moment there was silence. Then tho guns opened again. " Attack beaten off, I guess," said Fortescue The guns haven't lifted it at all." " Well, well," Pevenish yawned. " I'm going to turn in now. "iou'll detail that working party won't you? 11 find me in my own room. Come along, Paresco you'd better sleep there, too." " I don't feel sleepy," protested the little man eagerly. " No, but you will, tnv lad, when you've done from one till four on duty. You come along and get a bit of beauty sleep. They descended the ladder, leaving Fartescuo leaning against the chimnevstack, stolidly-watching the shells bursting round the castle. Paresco woke Devenish at four o'clock, | shaking his shoulder vigorously with one hand and wagging a lighted candle with the other. The Englishman was awake and alert in an instant, and sat up in bed feeling for his boots, the only things he had taken off. " Anything happened ?" he asked laconically. "I think," said Paresco, "they have taken the outer part of the castle." The little man was trembling with excitement, and his eyes danced. Devenish read his thoughts. "You think you ought to be there? Don't you worry, my boy. You'll have plenty of scrapping in a little while. " Yes," he added smiling as he caught the Karolian's glance, " you'll be able to kill enough Bolshies to satisfy even your murderous soul.'' " But look," protested Faresco," at what they have done, what they are doing—what they will do." " Quite," agreed Devenish, struggling with a refractory bootlace. " The more we ' do in' the better for Karolia, and the world in general. Umph !" He rose to his feet, taking his automatic from the table beside the bed, and slipping it into his pocket, glancing at it mechanically to see if it were loaded. Paresco fidgeted in his nervous way. He was trying to speak, but fumbling with his words. " M'sieu Devenish," he stammered at last. "Well, what's the trouble?" " I'm not a coward, Devenish. I'm not frightened. I want to fight the mob, and I will fight to the last." " Yes, yes, I know that, Paresco. We all know* it. Who's been calling you names V The earnest little fellow smiled in spite of himself. "No one, m'sieu. But you will understand I do not say this because I am afraid. Do you not think it would be wise—if only for mademoiselle's sake"— he blushed in tho candle light and faltered bashfully—" to go now, while things are quiet down here, and not wait till—" Devenish shook his head. Hi c jaw was hard and set, and his eyes glinted. " No, Paresco," he said kindly. "We

have a proverb in Devonshire—which is a part of England, Faresco, that, makes pretty little Karolia look like a howling wilderness—and it says, ' Don't, 'eo fall before you'm pushed.' We're not, pushed yet, and we don't, go till we are." "Believe me," he went, on.e and in iiis tone was more feeling than he knew, " I would give my right hand to see mademoiselle safe. But this house is English soil. And our job is to stay here as long as there is a sporting chance of our hanging on. Do you see? We've got, to stick to the ship till she's sinking under us, and keep the flag flying to the last." " Devenish, you're right." Taresco globed with sudden enthusiasm. "It is first England; everything else—lifelove—everything only after that. Devenish, you're a man.", And he seized tho Englishman's hand in a warm clasp. " I am sorry. I should not have spoken—" " That's all right," floundered Devenish. horribly embarrassed. " You get to bed again. I'll bet you're, tired. Cheerio." Paresco drew himself up, and responded with an air of great natural dignity: " Cheerio, old bean!" Devenish smiled, and, closing the door behind him, climbed the stairs and ladder to the roof. Ho stood there, watching tho shells bursting round tho castle. They were dropping round the centre tower and its turrets—a fact which seemed to confirm Paresco's impression that tho mob had taken the outer works. Tho guns seemed to lie blazing away fairly indiscriminately, though dropping an occasional shell'on the nearer towers, with an airy disregard for their comrades' lives, if any of the attackers were really there. The rifle-fire was merely intermittent; machine-guns jabbered only in short, occasional bursts. Now and then a small splash of flame, followed by a singing detonation, marked the bursting of a stray bomb. Tho castle seemed to make no reply. Apparently the Government troops ha/1 no artillerj, and were holding off the attackers with rifles and machine guns alone. Then a fresh sound sang through the bursting of shells—tho throbbing of an aeroplane engine. High above tho castle a rectangular object glimmered for a moment in tho orange glare of tho shellbursts. Then a tongue of vivid flame leaped up from among tho battlements, and tho crash of a heavy explosion came down on tho wind Another bomb fell, wide this time, among tho houses below tho castle. liigh-peaked gables and fantastic chimneys were silhouetted for a moment against tho vivid glare. One tall chimney stack toppled and smashed down before the flame died away. " M'm," muttered Devenish to himself, "they're getting on with it. An aeroplane now, and not too badly handled." Ho walked down the staiis and went round tho sentries; then down into the cellars, the muffed ring of iron 011 brickwork guiding him. Tho working party had breached in tho wall of the Legation cellar a hole big enough for a man to walk through, had crossed the adjoining cellar, and were steadily eating into tho wall of tho one beyond. They were not used to work of this kind; tho sweat, poured down their faces, and their hands were blistering painfully, but they picked away doggedly, turn and turn about. Devenish strolled back on to the roof. A di;ll glaro rose behind tho housetops round tho castle, and reflected upward to the billows of shifting smoke. The pungent smell of burning and the acrid tang of high explosive canio floating down an the breeze. Into tho glare shells wore stjll dropping, their explosions punctuated by occasional rifle shots. " By jove!" the Englishman exclaimed, "I believe they've fired the place!" As the night went on tlie glaro grew biightcv. Here and there vivid flames

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A BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN SERIAL, FULL OF THRILLS.

could bo seen licking upward. From time to time aeroplanes soared over the cnstlo, and dropped bombs into the inferno, below. Day dawned, pale flicker of grey in the eastern sky, and tho nearer roofs began to take shape. But, the top of the hill was hidden in a smoky veil, through which bursts of blacker smoko rose and swelled like monstrous, fantastic mushrooms. Suddenly, with tho dawning light, the guns stopped. There was an instant of intense, pregnant silence. Tlien a pandemonium of shouts and yells, and the hideous orchestra of rifles, machine-guns and bombs burst out into a reverberating discord; the flames, splashing vividly against the dark smoke, surged higher and higher. Devenish, leaning against a chimney stack, nodded his head thoughtfully. " About tho end of it, I think," he said. Little by little the firing died down, the detonations of the bombs grew fewer. Only tho frenzied shouting went on unabated, and tho red and orange grew amid tho black and grey. At last there was almost silence. What had happened at the castle; what had become of tho Countess Venesco, Prince Boris, Radtzkoff, there was no knowing, but there was little room for doubt they had all been killed. Nor was there any "way of discovering whether tho mob had found the princess* body, what they had done with it, whether they had satisfied themselves that they had been tricked. In any case, it seemed that the castle had been a gorgeous funeral pyre for tho last of tho Fetrovescos. " Well, now," said Devenish, " we've got, to stand to and wait for Mr. Rplshie to come over the top." All that day the people in the Legation waited, for the attack to come. Sylvia chafed and fretted under the suspense of inaction. Paresco suffered nearly as much, and wandered restlessly about, fidgeting with his revolver, to the imminent danger of anybody near him. The two Englishmen, though they might seethe inwardly, went about visiting their sentries, inspecting the progress of the working party in the cellars, watching the course of events in the street with outward calm. But tho molt seemed disposed, after tho heavy losses they had suffered in storming the castle, to hunt for easier prey. They left tho Legation and that part of tho square severely alone, save for a little desultory sniping from the houses on tho other side of the square, which taught tho defenders to approach the windows with caution, and one halfhearted attempt to rush the back of the building—an attempt that was easily beaten off with bomb and rifle-fire. On that side Devenish's men held the upper hand, and the revolutionists soon gave up their attempts to snipe from the windows across the narrow street.

" They're waiting for dark, I think," said Devenish, " to rush us in comparative safety. Whoever's in command, he's no fool." But though tin? Legation was unmolested, the rest of the city was plunged in a carnival of horror. It seemed that tin* troops of the Line, as Paresco had foretold, had mutineered to a man, probably shot their officers, joined the mob and swarmed out, armed to the teeth to sack the oily. All day long machino guns and rifles spattered in the streets, and howling mobs surged up and down. Most of tho crowd were grotesquely bedizened in silks and satins they had looted. A scowling ruffian went by with a woman's hat, feathered and be-rib boned, clapped askew on his bullet head; and a private soldier, now, apparently, in a command of some sort, led his men with a silver fox fur twisted round his bull neck, and a dozen gold bracelets clinking on his wrists. At last the sun began to sink behind the pall of smoke that hung over the city. Shadows began to veil, mercifully, tho scene of devilry. In the cast, tho flames of burning houses began to glow in the twilight. The cracking of rifles sounded louder, and the shouting of the mob increased as if more people were still coming out to sack and slaughter under cover of darkness. The party of the L gation were sitting in a little room at tTie back of the building, at. a scut of early supper Devenish had ordered, since the next few hours might bo busy ones. He chattered cheerily enough, to encourage the two women, but there were lines on his face and shadows in his eyes, betraying the effect that the sights he had seen from his post on the roof during the day had had upon him. Forleseue was calm, but quiet. Paresco had worn out his impatient restlessness, and was moody and silent. A dele seemed perfectly calm and unruffled.' She had helped Sylvia to arrange a sort of first aid' post in the cellar, and to pack up food for the flight, without any sign of emotion of any kind. She seemed to have imj imagination—to he perfectly content. to obey orders and take everything as it came. j (To be continued daily.)