Bill's hand clutched at Kars' muscular arm.

"That's the kid! Quick! Come on!"

They started for the door of the box. But, even as the doctor gripped
and turned the handle, the sequel to such an epithet in a place like
Leaping Horse came. Two shots rang out. Then two more followed on the
instant.

In a moment every light in the place was put out and pandemonium
reigned.

CHAPTER XXI

DR. BILL INVESTIGATES

All that had been feared by the two men in the box had come to pass.
It had come with a swiftness, a sureness incomparable. It had come
with a mercilessness which those who knew him regarded as only to be
expected in a man of Pap Shaunbaum's record.

Accustomed to an atmosphere very little removed from the lawless, the
panic and pandemonium that reigned in the dark was hardly to have been
expected on the part of the frequenters of the Elysian Fields. But it
was the sudden blacking out of the scene which had wrought on the
nerves. It was the doubt, the fear of where the next shots might come,
which sent men and women, shrieking and shouting, stampeding for the
doors which led to the hotel.

Never had the dance hall at the Elysian Fields so quickly cleared of
its revelers. The crush was terrible. Women fell and were trampled
under foot. It was only their men who managed to save them from
serious disaster. Fortunately the light in the hotel beyond the doors
became a beacon, and, in minutes only, the human tide, bedraggled and
bruised, poured out from the darkness of disaster to the glad light
which helped to restore confidence and a burning curiosity.

But curiosity had to remain unsatisfied for that night at least. The
doors were slammed in the faces of those who sought to return, and the
locks were turned, and the bolts were shot upon them. The excited
crowd was left to melt away as it chose, or stimulate its shaking
nerves at the various bars open to it.

Meanwhile John Kars and Bill Brudenell fumbled their way to the floor
below. The uncertainty, the possible danger, concerned them in nowise.
Alec was in the shooting. They might yet be in time to save him. This
thought sent them plunging through the darkness regardless of
everything but their objective.

As they reached the floor they heard the sharp tones of Pap echoing
through the darkened hall.

"Fasten every darn door," he cried. "Don't let any of those guys get
back in. Guess the p'lice'll be along right away. Turn up t