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Well, speak of the devil!"
Holt Dalrymple collided with them at the entrance of the inn. The
haggard, sullen, heated look that had characterized him was gone. He
was sunburned, and his dark eyes were bright. He greeted his friends
warmly. They chatted for a moment. Then Lane grew thoughtful, all the
while gazing at Holt.
"What's the idea?" queried that worthy, presently. "Anything wrong
with me?"
"Boy, you're just great. Seeing you has done me good.... You ask
what's the idea. Holt, would you do me a favor?"
"Would I? Listen to the guy," returned young Dalrymple. "Daren, I'd do
any old thing for you."
"Do you happen to know Bessy Bell?" went on Lane.
Dalrymple quickened with surprise. "Yes, I know her. Some little
peach!... I almost ran into her down on West Street a few minutes ago.
She wore a white veil. She didn't see me, or recognize me. But I sure
knew her. She was almost running. I bet a million to myself she had a
date at the club."
"You lose, Holt," replied Lane, shortly. "Bessy Bell is one
Middleville kid who has come clean through this mess."
"Say Dare, I like to hear you talk," responded Blair, half in jest and
half in earnest. "But aren't you getting a trifle unbalanced? That's
how my mother apologizes for me."
"Cut the joshing, boys. Listen," returned Lane. "And don't ever tell
this to a soul. I interested myself in Bessy Bell. I've met her more
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times than I can count. I wanted to see if it was possible to turn one
of these girls around. I failed on my sister Lorna. But Bessy Bell is
true blue. She had all this modern tommyrot. She had everything else
too. Brains, sweetness, common sense, romance. All I tried to do was
to make her forget the tommyrot. And I think I did."
"Well, I'll be darned!" ejaculated Blair. "Dare, that was ripping fine
of you.... What'll you do next, I wonder."
"Come on with your favor," added Holt, with a keen bright smile.
"Would you be willing to see Bessy occasionally--and sort of be nice
to her--you know?" asked Lane, earnestly. "I can't keep up my
attention to her much longer. She might miss me. Take it from me,
Holt, back of all this modern stuff--deep in Bessy, and in every girl
who has not been debased--is the simple and good desire to be liked."
"Daren, I'll do that little thing, believe me," returned Holt, warmly.
Shaking hands with his friends, Lane left them, and went on his way.
White's place was full as a beehive. As he passed, Lane found himself
looking for Bessy Bell's golden head, though he knew he would not see
it. He wondered if Holt had really met her, veiled and in a hurry.
That had a strange look. But no shadow of distrust of Bessy came to
Lane. In a few moments he reached the dark stairway leading to Colonel
Pepper's apartment. Lane forgot he was weak. But at the top, with his
breast laboring, he remembered well enough. He went into the Colonel's
rooms and through them without making a light. And when he reached the
place where he had spied upon the club he was wet with sweat and
shaking with excitement. Carefully, so as not to make noise, he stole
to the peep-hole and applied his eye.
He saw a gleam of light on shiny waxed floor, and then, moving to get
the limit of his narrow vision, he descried Swann, evidently just
arrived. With him was Gail Williams, a slip of a child not over
fifteen--looking up at him as if excited and pleased. Next Lane
espied his sister Lorna with a tall, well-built man. Although his back
was toward Lane, he could not mistake the soldierly bearing of Captain
Vane Thesel! Lorna looked perturbed and sulky, and once, turning her
face toward Swann, she seemed resentful. Captain Thesel had his hand
at her elbow and appeared to be talking earnestly.
Lane left his post, taking care to make no noise. But once back in the
Colonel's rooms, he hurried. Feeling in the dark corner where he had
kept the axe ready for just such an emergency as this, he grasped it
and rushed out. Tiptoeing down the hall, he found the narrow door,
stole down the black stairway and entered the main hall. Here he
paused, suddenly checked in his hurry.
"This won't do," he thought, and shook his head. "Much as I'd like to
kill those two dogs I can't--I can't.... I'll smash their faces,
though--and if I ever catch...."
Breaking the thought off abruptly, he passed down the dim hallway to
the door of the club-rooms. He raised the axe and was about to smash
the lock when he espied a key in the keyhole. The door was not locked.
Lane set down the axe and noiselessly turned the knob and peeped in.
The first room was dark, but the door on the opposite side was ajar,
and through it Lane saw the larger lighted room and the shiny floor.
Moving figures crossed the space. Removing the key, Lane slipped
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inside the room and locked the door. Then he tip-toed to the opposite
door.
Thesel and Lorna were now so close that Lane could hear them.
"But I thought I had a date with Dick," protested Lorna. Her face was
red and she stamped her foot.
"See here, kiddo. If you're as thick as that I'll have to put you
wise," answered Thesel, good-humoredly, as he tilted back his
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