Gray was surprised they did not use their knives. Once they perceived that he was fully awake they seemed to lose heart. The fight had taken only a minute, and Gray was master of the field. He had counted four men as they ran out. But he waited alertly by the door while Delabar, who had remained on his bed, got up and lit the lamp. Gray's first glance told him that no Chinamen were to be seen. He was breathing heavily, but quite unhurt. Having the advantage of both weight and hitting power over his light adversaries, he took no pride in his prompt clearing of the room. Delabar, however, was plainly shaky. "What did they want?" the professor muttered, eyeing the door. "How----" "Look out!" warned Gray crisply. From the foot of his bed a head appeared. Two slant eyes fixed on him angrily. A Chinaman in the rough clothes of a coolie crawled out and stood erect. In one hand he held Gray's rifle, removed from the case. With the other he was fumbling at the safety catch with which he seemed unfamiliar. Gray acted swiftly. Realizing that the gun was loaded and that it would go off if the coolie thought of pulling the trigger, inasmuch as the safety catch was not set, he stepped to one side, to the head of the bed. Here he fell to his knees. The man with the rifle, if he had fired, would probably have shot over the American, who was feeling under the pillow. As it happened the coolie did not pull the trigger of the gun. A dart of flame, a _crack_ which echoed loudly in the narrow room--and Gray, over the sights of the automatic which he had recovered and fired in one motion, saw the man stagger. Through the swirling smoke he saw the coolie drop the gun and run to the window. Gray covered the man again, but refrained from pressing the trigger. There was no need of killing the coolie. The next instant the man had flung open the shutters and dived from the window. Looking out, Gray saw the form of his adversary vaguely as the coolie picked himself up and vanished in the darkness. The street was silent. The guitar was no longer to be heard. Gray crossed the room and flung open the door. The hall was empty. He closed the door, readjusted the stick and string of coins and grinned at Delabar who was watching nervously. "That was one on me, Professor," he admitted cheerfully. "The coolie who bobbed up under the bed must have been the one I kicked there. Fancy knocking a man to where he can grab your own gun." Delabar, however, saw no humor in the situation. "They were coolies," he said. "What do you suppose they came after?" "Money. I don't know." Gray replaced the shutters and blew out the light. "We'll complain to our landlord in the morning. But I don't guess we'll have much satisfaction out of him. The fact that my shot didn't bring the household running here shows pretty well that it was a put-up job."