“This won’t do,” he thought, and shook his head.  “Much as I’d like to kill those two dogs I can’t—­I can’t....  I’ll smash their faces, though—­and if I ever catch....”

Breaking the thought off abruptly, he passed down the dim hallway to the door of the club-rooms.  He raised the axe and was about to smash the lock when he espied a key in the keyhole.  The door was not locked.  Lane set down the axe and noiselessly turned the knob and peeped in.  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.  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.  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.

“Fellows, I’ll have to break up your little party,” said Lane, coolly.

Thesel turned ghastly white, while Swann grew livid with rage.  He seemed to expand.  His hand went back to his right hip.

When Lane got within six feet of them, Swann drew a small automatic pistol.  But before he could raise it, Lane had leaped into startling activity.  With terrific swing he brought his gun down on Swann’s face.  Then as swiftly he turned on Thesel.  Swann had hardly hit the floor, a sodden heap, when Thesel, with bloody visage, reeled and fell like a log.  Lane bent over them, ready to beat either back.  But both were unconscious.

“Daren—­for God’s sake—­don’t murder them!” whispered Lorna, hoarsely.

Lane’s humanity was in abeyance then, but his self-control did not desert him.

“You girls must hurry out of here,” he ordered.

“Oh, Gail is fainting,” cried Lorna.

The little Williams girl was indeed swaying and sinking down.  Lane grasped her and shook her.  “Brace up.  If you keel over now, you’ll be found out sure....  It’s all right.  You’ll not be hurt.  There——­”

A heavy thumping on the door by which Lane had entered and a loud authoritative voice from the hall silenced him.