an Kai. The waiter went away
and came back with a broad-shouldered Chinaman whose sleeves were rolled
up, revealing sinewy yellow muscles. Campbell and Bassett guessed that
he came from the kitchen where he had been cutting meat, for his hands
were red and the apron he wore was stained. Chuan Kai spoke to these two
hench-men at some length; they replied in guttural syllables that
signified understanding.

A little after dark, on that same Friday evening, Teeny-bits came back
from supper at Lincoln Hall and went up to his room. He had taken a walk
with Neil Durant and Ned Stillson and had made up his mind that he would
go to bed early and keep his thoughts away from the things that were
troubling him. He had started to undress and had removed his shirt and
collar, when some one shouted up from below:

"Oh, Teeny-bits, you're wanted on the telephone."

Teeny-bits pulled on a sweater and went downstairs. In answer to his
inquiry he heard a voice--an unnaturally gruff voice, he remembered
afterwards--telling him startling news. His father, old Daniel Holbrook,
had been hurt--a train had struck him at the station--Teeny-bits was
wanted at home at once.

Waiting to hear no more, he hung up the receiver and without pausing to
tell any one where he was going, hurried out of Gannett Hall and ran
across the campus toward the hill-road that led down to the village of
Hamilton a mile away. He had covered half the distance when he saw an
automobile just ahead of him standing beside the road. As he approached,
he noticed that, though the lights were out, the engine was running; he
determined to explain the emergency and ask for a ride to the village.
He never made the request, however, for as he came abreast of the car he
heard a sharp whistle close beside him and was suddenly assailed by two
dark figures that sprang upon him and, almost before he could struggle,
bore him to the ground.

Teeny-bits had been in many a rough-and-tumble wrestling match and was
able to take care of himself in competition with any ordinary opponent,
even when weight was against him; he struggled desperately, but within
the space of a very few seconds he realized that he was helpless. At the
first onslaught something that felt like a voluminous cloth had been
thrown over his head and he found himself enveloped in its folds; he
tried to cry out for help, but his voice was muffled and ineffective.
Though unable to see his assailants, he kicked and struc