"they might turn sour on you, Mister Man."

"Give 'em away with a pound of tea," put in a third joker. "Eh, Josie?"

"Let's get away from here," whispered Indiman to me. "The girl looks as
though she might faint."

We pushed on through the crowd that continued to chaff us
good-naturedly--"joshing" they called it. Then we managed to struggle
into a sort of backwater at the side of the dais upon which an alleged
string band was trying to make good, as the scornful Miss Josie
remarked.

"There's something wrong in this, Thorp," said Indiman to me, in an
undertone. "Did you notice the stout man who stood immediately behind
her?"

"The chap with one ear a full size larger than the other? Yes, I did."

"He never takes his eyes from her, and I believe that the girl is here
against her will."

"Indiman!--" I began, but he cut me short.

"I know it, I tell you, and I'm going to take her away. Do you see that
electric-light switch on the wall behind you?"

Back of the musicians' platform was a small wall cupboard holding the
usual apparatus for controlling the incandescent lights with which the
hall was illuminated. "Pull down both handles when I give the signal,"
he went on, imperturbably.

"What signal?"

Indiman considered. "I'll take one of my kisses," he said, smiling.

"I'll do nothing of the kind."

"Oh yes, you will. Remember now--the instant that I bend down to kiss
her."

He was gone, leaving me to curse his folly. I tried to overtake him,
but the foolish youth and his Josie blocked my way, intentionally, it
seemed; that was part of their joshing of the stranger within the
house-smiths' gates. I stepped up on the platform, and looked for
Indiman. He had just reached the counter covered with red-paper muslin;
he pushed his way up to the girl with the gray eyes and said something
to her. She seemed to shrink away. Indiman turned for an instant and
looked back at me, then he bent down and kissed her.

Without having had the slightest intention of so doing, I pulled down
both handles; the hall was in instant and utter darkness. For a moment
the following silence persisted, menacing and deadly; it was as though
panic had suddenly reared her frightful head, a wild beast ready to
spring.

A girl's light laugh turned the scale. "Trying to raid the fruit-stand,
are you, bub?" went on Miss Josie, in her thin, cool voice. "Thought
you could pinch a couple in the dark of the moon; but nay, nay,
Thomas--those