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"Why on the sly?" inquired Lane. "Before I left home Mel Iden was about the prettiest and most popular girl in Middleville. Her people were poor, and ordinary, perhaps, but she was the equal of any one." "Thesel couldn't rush Mel now and get away with it, unless on the q-t," replied Lorna. "Haven't you heard about Mel?"
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.
Helen nodded to Blair and Lane, and evidently dragged at her escort's arm to hold him from passing on. "Look who's here! Daren, old boy and Blair," she called, and she held the officer back. The malice in her green glance did not escape Lane, as he bowed to her. She gloried in that situation. Captain Thesel had to face them. It was Blair's hand that stiffened Lane.
Thus it happened that the two ran a gauntlet with watching young people on each side, out to the open part of the hall. There directly in front they encountered Captain Vane Thesel, with Helen Wrapp on his arm. Her red hair, her green eyes, and carmined lips, the white of her voluptuous neck and arms, united in a singular effect of allurement that Lane felt with scorn and melancholy.
"I find the names Hardy Mackay, Captain Thesel, Dick Swann among these notes. What can these young society men be to my pupils?" "Some of the jealous girls have been tattling to each other and mentioning names." "Bessy! Do you imply these girls who talk have had the the interest or attention of these young gentlemen named?" "Yes." "In what way?"
She gazed up at him thoughtfully, earnestly, with an unconscious frank interest, curiosity, and reverence. "You strike me funny," she mused. "I never met a soldier like you." "Bessy, how many soldiers have you met who have come back from France?" "Not many, only Blair and you, and Captain Thesel, though I really didn't meet him. He came up to me at the armory and spoke to me.
"Well, I've heard Captain Thesel was to blame for for what was said about you last summer when he came home." "And what was that, Lorna?" queried Lane, curiously puzzled at her, and darkly conscious of the ill omen that had preceded him home. "You'll not hear it from me," declared Lorna, spiritedly. "But that Croix de Guerre doesn't agree with it, I'll tell the world."
Although his back was toward Lane, he could not mistake the soldierly bearing of Captain Vane Thesel! Lorna looked perturbed and sulky, and once, turning her face toward Swann, she seemed resentful. Captain Thesel had his hand at her elbow and appeared to be talking earnestly. Lane left his post, taking care to make no noise. But once back in the Colonel's rooms, he hurried.
A little frown puckered her smooth brow and there was a gleam in her eye. "Seems to me I heard some of the kids talking last summer," she mused, ponderingly. "Vane Thesel was stuck on Mel Iden and Dot Dalrymple both before the war. Dot handed him a lemon. He's still trying to rush Dot, and the gossip is he'd go after Mel even now on the sly, if she'd stand for it."
And at that he did not know what to think. He was stunned. "Daren, you served a while under Captain Thesel in the war," she said. "Yes, I guess I did," replied Lane, with sombre memory resurging. "Do you know he lives here?" "I knew him here in Middleville several years before the war." "He's danced with me at the Armory. Some swell dancer!
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