gave Lane a smile from her purple eyes, as if to cheer him, to assure him she could save the situation. It struck Lane that Chief Bell looked as if he might be following a similar line of thought.
“Bessy, put on your hat,” ordered Bell. “And here ... tuck that veil around. There, now you beat it for home. Lane, go with her to the stairs. Take a good look in the street. Bessy, go home the back way. And Lane, you hurry back.”
Lane followed Bessy out and caught up with her in the hall. She clasped his arm.
“Some adventure, I'll say!” she burst out, in breathless whisper. “It was great until I recognized your voice. Then all inside me went flooey.”
“Bessy, you're the finest little girl in the world,” returned Lane, stirred to emotion.
“Here, Daren, cut that. You didn't raise me on soft soap and mush. If you get to praising me I'll fall so far I'll never light.... Now, Dare, go back and fool Dad. You must save the girls. It doesn't matter about me. He's my Dad.”
“I'll do my best,” replied Lane.
They reached the landing of the outside stairway. Peering down, Lane did not see any one.
“I guess the coast is clear. Now, beat it, Bessy.”
She lifted the white veil and raised her face. In the dim gray light Lane saw it as never before.
“Kiss me, Daren,” she whispered.
Lane had never kissed her. For an instant he was confused.
“Why—little girl!” he exclaimed.
“Hurry!” she whispered, imperiously.
Some instinct beyond Lane's ken prompted him to do what she asked.
“Good-bye, my little Princess,” he whispered. “Don't ever forget me.”
“Never, Daren. Good-bye.” She slipped down the stairway and in a moment more vanished in the gray gloom of the misty night.
Only then did Lane understand what she, with her woman's intuition, had divined—that they would never be together again. The realization gave him a pang. Bessy was his only victory.
Slowly Lane made his way back to the club-rooms. He had begun to weaken under the strain and felt the approach of something akin to collapse. When he reached the large room he found Swann half conscious and Thesel showing signs of coming to.
“Lane, come here,” said the Chief, drawing Lane away from the writhing forms on the floor. “You're under arrest.”
“Yes, sir. What's the charge?”
“Let's see. That's the puzzler,” replied the Chief, scratching his head. “Suppose we say gambling and fighting.”
“Fine!” granted Lane, with a smile.
“When the ambulance comes you get out of sight until we pack these fellows out. I'll leave the door open—so if there's any reason you want to come back—why—”
Chief Bell half averted his face, seemingly not embarrassed, but rather pondering in thought. “Thanks, Chief. You understand me perfectly,” responded Lane. “I'll appear at police headquarters in half an hour.”
The officer laughed, and returning to the injured men he knelt beside them. Swann sat up moaning. Blood had blinded his sight. He did not see Lane pass. Sounds of an ambulance bell had caught Lane's quick ear. Finding the washroom, he went in and, locking the door, leaned there to wait. In a very few moments the injured Swann and Thesel had been carried out. Lane waited five minutes after the sound of wheels had died away. Then he hurried out and opened the door of the closet.
Lorna almost fell over him in her eagerness. If she had been frightened, she had recovered. Gail staggered out, pale and sick looking.
“Oh, Daren, can you get us out?” whispered Lorna, breathlessly.
“Hurry, and don't talk,” replied Lane.
He led them out into the hall and down to the stairway where he had taken Bessy. As before, all appeared quiet below.
“I guess it's safe.... Girls, let this be a lesson to you.”
“Never any more for mine,” whimpered Gail.
But Lorna was of more tempered metal.
“Believe me, Daren, I'm glad you knocked the lamps out of those swell boobs,” she whispered, passionately. “Dick Swann used me like dirt. The next guy like him who tries to get gay with me will have some fall, I'll tell the world.... Me for Harry! There's nothing in this q-t stuff.... And say, what do you know about Bessy Bell? She came here to save us.... Hot dog, but she's a peach!”
Lane admonished the girls to hurry and watched them until they reached the street and turned the corner out of sight.
CHAPTER XVII.
The reaction from that night landed Lane in the hospital, where, during long weeks when he did have a lucid interval, he saw that his life was despaired of and felt that he was glad of it.
