The women and children—all save Kara—withdrew into the shadows. The men gathered together. Tokalji crossed to the entrance.  
"Less noise there!" he shouted threateningly. "This is a peaceful house."
 
But his manner changed the moment he opened the wicket. What he said we could not hear, but we saw him quickly turn the lock and throw back a leaf of the door, salaaming low as he stepped aside. Six men burst in, four of them in European clothes, and Nikka and I exchanged a glance of apprehension as we recognized the broad shoulders of their leader and heard his snarling voice.
 
Toutou LaFitte had arrived. With him were Hilyer, Serge Vassilievich and Hilmi Bey. The two who brought up the rear, somewhat sulky and fearful, were the spies we had seen in front of the Pera Palace that morning.
 
"Can I trust nobody to fulfill my orders?" whined Toutou, striding toward the fire. "I tell you to spare no efforts—and I come to find you singing and dancing around a fire! Is that working? Is that carrying out our treaty? But all are the same! My best people fail me."
 
His green eyes shone evilly; his hands writhed with suppressed ferocity. Tokalji, having refastened the door, followed him across the courtyard. The Gypsy looked uncomfortable, but showed no fear.
 
"What could we have done that we have not done?" he retorted. "Was it our fault that you lost track of the two missing ones? As for the English lord and his servant, my two men that I see with you have shadowed them day and night."
 
"And lost them to-day, as they admit," snarled Toutou. "Lost them for a whole day! Who knows what has been accomplished in that time?"
 
"You are right there," agreed Tokalji coolly, "and I have just picked two new men to take their places. Zlacho and Petko are good enough for ordinary thievery, but this job seems to be above them."
 
"That is well," said Toutou, partly mollified. "There must be a change in our methods or we shall fail in this coup. I decided to hasten on to Constantinople with my colleagues because I was sure the two who have escaped us must come here sooner or later, and whenever they come we shall find them. But I cannot do everything. It is for you to follow their trails."
 
"Never fear! We shall," replied Tokalji. "My new men start out at once. One of them is a Frank like yourself; the other is a Tzigane."
 
"Ha; let me see that Frank," exclaimed Toutou. "I know many of the Franks who live with the Tziganes."
 
"Step out, Giorgi Bordu and Jakka," called Tokalji.
 
Nikka sunk his fingers in my arm in a warning grip, and we stepped forth from the group of Tziganes clustered in front of the fire. There was at least a chance that we should not be identified—but its value was demonstrated the instant the firelight splashed over Nikka's aquiline face and tense, febrile body.
 
"Surely, I have seen that lean fellow before," piped Hilmi Bey, pointing at Nikka.
 
"I saw them standing near the Frank lord and his servant in Pera this morning," said one of the spies.
 
"What of that?" shouted Tokalji angrily. "It is true they followed the Franks—which was more than you could do, Petko—and robbed them."
 
"No, the Franks followed them," protested Zlacho, the other spy.
 
"You lie, you dog!" bellowed Tokalji. "You think to discredit them because they will do the work you bungled."
 
Vassilievich pushed in front of the newcomers.
 
"Is it my imagination," he inquired softly, "or does the stocky one bear a resemblance to the Americansky, Nash?"
 
"By jove, I think you're right!" exclaimed Hilyer, speaking for the first time.
 
"Be ready," hissed Nikka from the corner of his mouth, without shifting his eyes from our enemies.
 
His right hand was thrust into his waist-sash.
 
"I do not like this business," rasped Toutou, pulling a knife from inside his vest. "Somebody shall be tortured until he tells the truth."
 
I felt a pressure between Nikka and myself, and Kara's voice whispered:
 
"Run, you fools! To the House of the Married!"
 
Nikka's pistol flashed blue in the firelight.
 
"Shoot, Jack!" he cried.
 
A ruddy flame jetted from his muzzle, and the spy Petko dropped dead. Toutou LaFitte pushed Zlacho in the line of fire before himself, and dived into the encircling shadows as Zlacho crumpled up with a broken leg. Tokalji, Hilyer, Vassilievich and Hilmi scattered. I swung on my heel and shot twice over the group of Gypsies by the fire. I could not bring myself to shoot at them, for there were women and children close by. Then a bullet whistled past my ear, and Toutou's voice whined:
 
"No shooting! Use your knives! Take them alive!"
 
I had a fleeting glimpse of Kara, running at me with her knife raised.
 
"There are only two!" roared Tokalji. "Pull them down!"
 
"Run!" I heard Nikka shout.
 
We pelted for the house on our left, the House of the Married, as Kara had called it. Despite Toutou's warning, a second bullet spattered on the stones between Nikka and me; but we were poor marks in the half-light, with people running in every direction, many of them uncertain who were friends or foes. I turned as I ran, and fired into the ground in front of Kara, who was the closest of our pursuers; but she refused to be frightened and actually plunged through the doorway on our heels.
 
"I'll tend to her," panted Nikka. "You fasten the door, Jack."
 
There was a wooden bar, which I dropped into place, and the next minute the framework groaned under a weight of bodies.
 
"No shooting," yelled Tokalji. "You fools, you'll have the Frank police in here!"
 
"One hundred Napoleons a head for them," barked Toutou. "Dead or alive."
 
The uproar redoubled, and then Tokalji evidently invaded the throng hammering at the door.
 
"Leave that door alone," he snapped. "You're wasting time. Go through the windows."
 
"Come on, Nikka," I urged. "We can't guard every point. We must run for it."
 
"But what about this?" demanded Nikka whimsically. He jerked his pistol muzzle at Kara sitting demurely on the floor, playing with her knife. "If we show our backs, she'll knife us or open the door—and besides, where shall we go?"
 
"Tie her up," I answered impatiently.
 
Kara, who, of course, could not understand a word of what we were saying, laughed with glee.
 
"Do you think I am your enemy?" she demanded in the Tzigane dialect. "I tell you I am your friend. See!"
 
And she tossed her knife across the room.
 
"I came with you to help you, Giorgi Bordu."
 
"My name is Nikka Zaranko," he answered shortly.
 
"What matters your name?" She leaped up and flung her arms around his neck. "It is you I love—not your name."
 
Nikka eyed me sheepishly across her shoulder.
 
"See you, little one," he remonstrated, "this is no time for talking of love. We may be dead in five minutes."
 
"Oh, no," she said, releasing him, nevertheless, "you shall be off and away. I, Kara—" and it was ridiculous how she strutted in the manner of Tokalji, himself—"will set you free—because I love you."
 
"But I am the enemy of your tribe—your enemy," replied Nikka. "You do not realize what you do."
 
"I care not who you are," she insisted. "I love you. I care that for the tribe!"
 
She snapped her fingers.
 
"But come," she added as a crash sounded outside. "They have broken in a window. Follow me."
 
She led us into an adjoining room, where in the thickness of the wall a narrow stairway corkscrewed upward, debouching on the upper floor. Here was a long hall, with rooms opening off it, their windows usually on the inner courtyard, the Garden of the Cedars of the First Hugh's Instructions. She turned to the right, and entered one of the rooms. A ladder leaned against the wall below a trap-door in the roof. In a corner stood a bedstead, which she stripped of its clothes, revealing the cords that served for springs.
 
"Cut those with your knife," she said. "When we take to the roofs we will need them to help us down again."
 
Nikka did as she directed, while I shut the door, and piled the few articles of furniture against it. Tokalji's men were in full cry downstairs.
 
"There is more than enough rope here," said Nikka, coiling ............