angs rose slowly, groped
his way to his chum as if through a fog, and catching him by the
shoulders looked wildly into his eyes.

"You mean--you mean," he stuttered at last,
"that--that--this--was--all--a--hoax?"

"Of course it was," Laurie admitted, in his gayest voice. "It was the
climax of the hoax you have played on me. An hour ago Shaw confessed to
me how you three arranged this whole plot of Miss Mayo's adventure, so
that I should be kept out of mischief and should think I was having an
adventure myself. I thought a little excitement was due you in return.
How do you like my climax, anyhow? Pretty fair, I call it."

He stopped short. Rodney had loosened his grip on his shoulders and
stumbled to a chair. Now, his arm on its back and his head on his arm,
his body shook with the relentless convulsion of a complete nervous
collapse. Epstein had produced a handkerchief and was feebly wiping his
forehead. Doris seemed to have ceased to breathe. Laurie walked over to
her, took her hands, and drew them away from her face. Even yet, she
seemed not to understand.

"I'm sorry," he said, very gently. "I've given you three an awful jolt.
But I think you will all admit that there was something coming to you.
You've put me through a pretty bad week. I decided you could endure half
an hour of reprisal."

None of the three answered. None of the three could. But, in the
incandescent moments that followed, the face of Epstein brightened
slowly, like a moon emerging from black clouds. Bangs alone, who had
best borne the situation up till now, was unable to meet the reaction.
In the silence of the little studio he wept on, openly and gulpingly and
unrestrainedly, as he had not wept since he was a little boy.

CHAPTER XVIII

A LITTLE LOOK FORWARD

"So Shaw told you!" muttered Epstein a few moments later.

"You bet he did!" Laurie blithely corroborated. "He had to, to save his
skin. But he was pretty game, I'll give him credit for that. I had to
fire one shot past his head to convince him that I meant business.
Besides, as I've said, I thought he was reaching for something. I
suppose I was a little nervous. Anyway, we clenched again,
and--well--I'd have killed him, I guess, if he hadn't spoken."

He smiled reminiscently. All three were tactfully ignoring Bangs, who
had walked over to the window and by the exercise of all his will-power
was now getting his nerves under control.

"Shaw didn't do the tale justice, he