get in now."

Lane counted five dark forms against the background of dim light. He
saw the red glow of a cigarette. Then the door upon which Pepper had
knocked opened to let out a flare. Pepper gave Lane a shove across the
threshold and followed him. Lane did not recognize the young man who
had opened the door. The room was large, with old walls and high
ceiling, a round table with chairs and a sideboard. It had no windows.
The door on the other side was closed.

"Pepper, who's this you're ringin' in on me?" demanded the young
fellow.

"A pard of mine. Now don't be peeved, Sammy," replied Pepper. "If
there's any kick I'll take the blame. What's got into you that you
can gamble and drink' with _slackers_?"

Dalrymple jammed his hat on and stepped toward the door. "Dare, you
said a lot. I'll beat it with you--and I'll never come back."

"You bet your sweet life you won't," shouted Swann.

"Hold on there, Dalrymple," interposed Mackay, stepping out. "Come
across with that eighty-six bucks you owe me."

"I--I haven't got it, Mackay," rejoined the boy, flushing deeply.

Lane ripped open his coat and jerked out his pocket-book and tore
bills out of it. "There, Hardy Mackay," he said, with deliberate
scorn, throwing the money on the table. "There are your eighty-six
dollars--_earned_ in France.... I should think it'd burn your
fingers."

He drew Holt out into the hall, where Pepper waited. Some one slammed
the door and began to curse.

"That ends that," said Colonel Pepper, as the three moved down the dim
hall.

"It ends us, Pepper, but you couldn't stop those guys with a crowbar,"
retorted Dalrymple.

Lane linked arms with the boy and changed the conversation while they
walked back to the inn. Here Colonel Pepper left them, and Lane talked
to Holt for an hour. The more he questioned Holt the better he liked
him, and yet the more surprised was he at the sordid fact of the boy's
inclination toward loose living. There was something perhaps that Holt
would not confess. His health had been impaired in the rich coloring,
but his face wore a shade of sullen depression. The other two young
men Lane had seen in Middleville, but they were unknown to him.

"Pepper, you beat it with your new pard," snarled Swann. "And you'll
not get in here again, take that from me."

The mandate nettled Pepper, who evidently felt more deeply over this
situation than had appeared on the surface.

"Sure, I'll beat it," returned he, res