mash
the door in!"

Lane whispered to the girls: "Is there a place to hide you?"

The Williams girl was beyond answering, but Lorna, despite her terror,
had not lost her wits.

"Yes--there's a closet--hid by a curtain--here," she whispered,
pointing.

Lane half carried Gail. Lorna brushed aside a heavy curtain and opened
a door. Lane pushed both girls into the black void and closed the door
after them.

"Once more--open up!" bellowed the officer in the hall, accompanying
his demand with a thump on the door. Lane made sure some one had found
his axe. He did not care how much smashing the policemen did. All that
concerned Lane then was how to avert discovery from the girls. It
looked hopeless. Then, as there came sudden splintering blows on the
door, Lane espied Swann's cigarettes and matches on the music box.
Lane seldom smoked. But while the officers were breaking in the door,
Lane leisurely lighted a cigarette; and when two of them came in he
faced them coolly.

The first was Chief Bell, a large handsome man, in blue uniform. The
second one was a patrolman. Neither carried a weapon in sight. Bell
swept the big room in one flashing blue glance--took in Lane and the
prone figures on the floor.

"Well, I'll be damned," he ejaculated. "What am I up against?"

"Hello, Chief," replied Lane, coolly. "Don't get fussed up now. This
is no murder case."

"Lane, what's this mean?" burst out Bell.

Lane was rather well acquainted with Chief Bell, and in a way there
was friendship between them. Bell, for one, had always been sturdily
loyal to the soldiers.

"Well, Chief, I was having a little friendly game with Mr. Swann and
Captain Thesel," drawled Lane. "We got into an argument. And as both
were such ferocious fighters I grew afraid they'd hurt me bad--so I
had to soak them."

"Don't kid me," spoke up Bell, derisively. "Little game--hell! Where's
the cards, chips, table?"

"Chief, I didn't say we played the game to-night."

"Lane, you're a liar," replied Bell, thoughtfully. "I'm sure of that.
But you've got me buffaloed." He knelt on the floor beside the fallen
men and examined each. Swann's shirt as well as face was bloody. "For
a crippled soldier you've got some punch left. What'd you hit them
with?"

"I'll tell you Chief. I fetched an axe with me to do the dirty job,
but I decided I should use a dangerous weapon only on men. So I soaked
them with a lollypop."

"Lane, are you really nutty?" demanded Bell,