came from beyond
that door.

"So!" Cadorna grinned maliciously. "Another victim! Carlos first, then
you, and now--Al Cadorna. If you're worrying about her, kid, you
needn't. She'll be perfectly safe with me."

Eddie's roar of rage shook the rafters. Heedless of consequences, he
brought his knee up suddenly and violently. Cadorna sank to the floor
with a groan, his pistol clattering harmlessly on the rough planks. In
a flash Eddie retrieved it, dropping behind the prostrate form of the
stricken gangster. Gus had fired and missed. Now he dared not shoot
for fear of hitting his chief. Eddie's gun spat fire and the big
German clapped his hands over his heart, his good eye widening in
surprise. Then he reeled and pitched forward on his face. A feminine
cry sounded from the adjoining room and Eddie's heart skipped a beat
when he heard it.

Carlos was padding across the floor, trying to get into a position
where he could fire without endangering Cadorna. Eddie swung his
pistol around and pulled the trigger. A miss! He fired again, but too
late. Fingers of steel had gripped his wrist and the king of gangland
rolled over on him, twisting the gun from his hand. Clubbed now, the
pistol was raised high over that distorted, malicious face. Eddie
tried to twist away from under the blow as it started its downward
swing, then a thousand steam hammers hit him all at once and ...
blackness....

* * * * *

Something was pounding insistently at the doors of his consciousness.
He must pull himself together! They'd left him for dead and he
was--almost. But voices as loud and raucous as those would waken the
dead. He groaned with pain when he attempted to move his head.

"That for you, you rat." It was Cadorna's voice. "Try to take my
woman, will you?"

The pounding resolved itself into the angry barking of an automatic.
Someone squealed with mortal agony. Eddie opened his eyes cautiously
and saw that the room was full of people. The pungent odor of burned
powder assailed his nostrils. There was Cadorna and Carlos, David
Shelton and Lina. An undersized, dapper youth stood over the body of
the big German, his hands outstretched before his horror-stricken
face. A moment he stood thus, like a statue. Then his knees gave way
beneath him and he crumpled into a grotesque heap beside the man who
had been called Gus. Such was the manner of Cadorna's dealing with
those who displeased him.

The door to the ad