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Her face was red and she stamped her foot. "See here, kiddo. If you're as thick as that I'll have to put you wise," answered Thesel, good-humoredly, as he tilted back his cigarette to blow smoke at the ceiling. "Dick is through with you." "Oh, is he?" choked Lorna. "Say, Cap, I heard a noise," suddenly called out Swann, rather nervously. There was a moment's silence.
He had no interest in Captain Vane Thesel. He just wanted to get a close look at the girl. Presently he heard steps, heavy and light, and a man's deep voice, a girl's low thrill of laughter. They turned the curve in the stairway and did not see Lane until they had mounted to the top. With cool steady gaze Lane studied the girl. Her clear eyes met his.
They halted, erect, like statues, with eyes that failed to see Thesel. He did not exist for them. With a flush of annoyance he spoke, and breaking from Helen, passed on. A sudden silence in the groups nearby gave evidence that the incident had been observed. Then whispers rose. "Boys, aren't you dancing?" asked Helen, with a mocking sweetness. "Let me teach you the new steps."
What the general public had heard and believed was the story concocted by Thesel and Swann, who claimed that Lane, over a gambling table, had been seized by one of the frenzied fits common to deranged soldiers, and had attacked them. Thesel lost his left eye and Swann carried a hideous red scar from brow to cheek.
Thesel will lose that eye it's gone now and Swann is also disfigured for life. What a damned shame!" "Chief, are you sure it's any kind of a shame?" Lane's query appeared to provoke thought. Bell replaced the little automatic pistol he had picked up beside Swann, and rising he looked at Lane. "Swann was a slacker. Thesel was your Captain in the war.
"It's Harold's and I came with him." "Tell him it was up to him to find you." "But he might get wise to a car ride." "He'd do the same. Come on," returned Thesel, who all the time was leading her down the stairway step by step. They disappeared. From the open window Lane saw them go down the street and get into a car and ride away. He glanced at his watch, muttering.
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.
The first room was dark, but the door on the opposite side was ajar, and through it Lane saw the larger lighted room and the shiny floor. Moving figures crossed the space. Removing the key, Lane slipped inside the room and locked the door. Then he tip-toed to the opposite door. Thesel and Lorna were now so close that Lane could hear them. "But I thought I had a date with Dick," protested Lorna.
Lane, too, had heard a noise, but could not be sure whether it was inside the building or not. Swann hurried over to join Thesel. They looked blankly at each other. The air might have been charged. Both girls showed alarm. Then Lane, with his hand on the gun in his pocket, strode out to confront them. "Oh h!" gasped Lorna, as if appalled at sight of her brother's face.
"Heavens, how things come about! My officer was from Middleville." "Daren! Who?" she asked, quickly, her eyes darkening with thought. "Captain Vane Thesel." How singular to Lane the fact she did not laugh! She only stared. Then it seemed part of her warmth and glow, her subtle response to his emotion, slowly receded. He felt what he could not see. "Oh! He.
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