chez, and a third companion were in intimate and desperate
conflict with half a dozen other men--dim, furious figures fighting
there under the flickering gas jet from which the dirty globe had been
knocked into fragments.

Into this dusty maelstrom of waving arms and legs went Barres--first
dropping his now inert prey--and began to hit out enthusiastically
right and left, at the nearest hostile countenance visible.

His was a flank attack and totally unexpected by the attackees; and
the diversion gave Renoux time to seize a muscular, struggling
opponent, hold him squirming while Souchez passed his handkerchief
over his throat and the third man turned his pockets inside out.

Then Renoux called breathlessly to Barres:

"All right, mon vieux! Face to the rear front! March!"

For a moment they stiffened to face a battering rush from the stairs.
Suddenly a pistol spoke, and an Irish voice burst out:

"Whist, ye domm fool! G'wan wid yer fishtin' an' can th' goon-play!"

There came a splintering crash as the rickety banisters gave way and
several Teutonic and Hibernian warriors fell in a furious heap,
blocking the entry with an unpremeditated obstacle.

Instantly Souchez, Barres and the other man backed out into the
street, followed nimbly by Renoux and his plunder.

Already a typical Third Avenue crowd was gathering, though the ominous
glimmer of a policeman's buttons had not yet caught the lamplight from
the street corner.

Then the door of Grogan's burst open and an embattled Irishman
appeared. But at first glance the hopelessness of the situation
presented itself to him; a taxi loaded with French and American
franc-tireurs was already honking triumphantly away westward; an
excited and rapidly increasing throng pressed around the Family
Entrance; also, the distant glitter of a policeman's shield and
buttons now extinguished all hope of pursuit.

Soane glared at the crowd out of enraged and blood-shot eyes:

"G'wan home, ye bunch of bums!" he said thickly, and slammed the door
to the Family Entrance of Grogan's notorious cafe.

At 42d Street and Madison Avenue the taxi stopped and Souchez and
Alost got out and went rapidly across the street toward the Grand
Central depot. Then the taxi proceeded west, north again, then once
more west.

Renoux, busy with a bleeding nose, remarked carelessly that Souchez
and Alost were taking a train and were in a hurry, and that he himself
was going back to the Astor.

"Yo