"Whom do you seek?" inquired a woman's voice. Barney recognized it as the voice of his captor.
"A Serbian spy, Stefan Drontoff," replied the man. "Do you know him?"There was a considerable pause on the girl's part before she answered, and then her reply was in such a low voice that Barney could barely hear it.
"I do not know him," she said. "There are several men who lodge here. What may this Stefan Drontoff look like?""I have never seen him," replied the officer; "but by ar-resting all the men in the house we must get this Stefan also, if he is here.""Oh!" cried the girl, a new note in her voice, "I guess Iknow now whom you mean. There is one man here I have heard them call Stefan, though for the moment I had for-gotten it. He is in the small attic-room at the head of the stairs. Here is a key that will fit the lock. Yes, I am sure that he is Stefan. You will find him there, and it should be easy to take him, for I know that he is unarmed. He told me so last night when he came in.""The devil!" muttered Barney Custer; but whether he referred to his predicament or to the girl it would be im-possible to tell. Already the sound of heavy boots on the stairs announced the coming of men--several of them. Bar-ney heard the rattle of accouterments--the clank of a scab-bard--the scraping of gun butts against the walls. The Austrians were coming!
He looked about. There was no way of escape except the door and the skylight, and the door was impossible.
Quickly he tilted the cot against the door, wedging its legs against a crack in the floor--that would stop them for a minute or two. then he wheeled the dresser beneath the sky-light and, placing the chair on top of it, scrambled to the seat of the latter. His head was at the height of the sky-light. to force the skylight from its frame required but a moment. A key entered the lock of the door from the op-posite side and turned. He knew that someone without was pushing. Then he heard an oath and heavy battering upon the panels. A moment later he had drawn himself through the skylight and stood upon the roof of the building. Be-fore him stretched a series of uneven roofs to the end of the street. Barney did not hesitate. He started on a rapid trot toward the adjoining roof. From that he clambered to a higher one beyond.
On he went, now leaping narrow courts, now dropping to low sheds and again clambering to the heights of the higher buildings, until he had come almost to the end of the row. Suddenly, behind him he heard a hoarse shout, fol-lowed by the report of a rifle. With a whir, a bullet flew a few inches above his head. He had gained the last roof--a large, level roof--and at the shot he turned to see how near to him were his pursuers.
Fatal turn!
Scarce had he taken his eyes from the path ahead than his foot fell upon a glass skylight, and with a loud crash he plunged through amid a shower of broken glass.
His fall was a short one. Directly beneath the skylight was a bed, and on the bed a fat Austrian infantry captain.
Barney lit upon the pit of the captain's stomach. With a howl of pain the officer catapulted Barney to the floor. There were three other beds in the room, and in each bed one or two other officers. Before the American could regain his feet they were all sitting on him--all except the infantry captain. He lay shrieking and cursing in a painful attempt to regain his breath, every atom of which Barney had knocked out of him.
The officers sitting on Barney alternately beat him and questioned him, interspersing their interrogations with lurid profanity.
"If you will get off of me," at last shouted the American, "I shall be glad to explain--and apologize."They let him up, scowling ferociously. He had promised to explain, but now that he was confronted by the immedi-ate necessity of an explanation that would prove at all satis-factory as to how he happened to be wandering around the rooftops of Burgova, he discovered that his powers of in-vention were entirely inadequate. The need for explaining, however, was suddenly removed. A shadow fell upon them from above, and as they glanced up Barney saw the figure of an officer surrounded by several soldiers looking down upon him.
"Ah, you have him!" cried the new-comer in evident satis-faction. "It is well. Hold him until we descend."A moment later he and his escort had dropped through the broken skylight to the floor beside them.
"Who is the mad man?" cried the captain who had broken Barney's fall. "The assassin! He tried to murder me.""I cannot doubt it," replied the officer who had just de-scended, "for the fellow is no other than Stefan Drontoff, the famous Serbian spy!""Himmel! ejaculated the officers in chorus. "You have done a good days' work, lieutenant.""The firing squad will do a better work in a few minutes,"replied the lieutenant, with a grim pointedness that took Barney's breath away.