“Open up here!  You’re pinched!”

That voice Lane recognized as belonging to Chief of Police Bell.  For a moment, fraught with suspense, Lane was at a loss to know what to do.

“Open up!  We’ve got the place surrounded....  Open up, or we’ll smash the door in!”

Lane whispered to the girls:  “Is there a place to hide you?”

The Williams girl was beyond answering, but Lorna, despite her terror, had not lost her wits.

“Yes—­there’s a closet—­hid by a curtain—­here,” she whispered, pointing.

Lane half carried Gail.  Lorna brushed aside a heavy curtain and opened a door.  Lane pushed both girls into the black void and closed the door after them.

“Once more—­open up!” bellowed the officer in the hall, accompanying his demand with a thump on the door.  Lane made sure some one had found his axe.  He did not care how much smashing the policemen did.  All that concerned Lane then was how to avert discovery from the girls.  It looked hopeless.  Then, as there came sudden splintering blows on the door, Lane espied Swann’s cigarettes and matches on the music box.  Lane seldom smoked.  But while the officers were breaking in the door, Lane leisurely lighted a cigarette; and when two of them came in he faced them coolly.

The first was Chief Bell, a large handsome man, in blue uniform.  The second one was a patrolman.  Neither carried a weapon in sight.  Bell swept the big room in one flashing blue glance—­took in Lane and the prone figures on the floor.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he ejaculated.  “What am I up against?”

“Hello, Chief,” replied Lane, coolly.  “Don’t get fussed up now.  This is no murder case.”

“Lane, what’s this mean?” burst out Bell.

Lane was rather well acquainted with Chief Bell, and in a way there was friendship between them.  Bell, for one, had always been sturdily loyal to the soldiers.

“Well, Chief, I was having a little friendly game with Mr. Swann and Captain Thesel,” drawled Lane.  “We got into an argument.  And as both were such ferocious fighters I grew afraid they’d hurt me bad—­so I had to soak them.”

“Don’t kid me,” spoke up Bell, derisively.  “Little game—­hell!  Where’s the cards, chips, table?”

“Chief, I didn’t say we played the game to-night.”

“Lane, you’re a liar,” replied Bell, thoughtfully.  “I’m sure of that.  But you’ve got me buffaloed.”  He knelt on the floor beside the fallen men and examined each.  Swann’s shirt as well as face was bloody.  “For a crippled soldier you’ve got some punch left.  What’d you hit them with?”

“I’ll tell you Chief.  I fetched an axe with me to do the dirty job, but I decided I should use a dangerous weapon only on men.  So I soaked them with a lollypop.”

“Lane, are you really nutty?” demanded Bell, curiously.

“No more than you.  I hit them with something hard, so it would leave a mark.”