Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/245

Rh both the pistol and the bag-handle between the same fingers.

So intently was I watching them, in fact, that I saw nothing else that was taking place much closer to me.

My first intimation of this came with startling unexpectedness. It came in the form of a long arm girdling my waist, pinning my left hand to my side at the same time that it lifted me slightly off my feet. And the next moment my other arm was also in chancery.

"It's all right! I've got her!" called out a deep bass voice close to my ear. And startled as I was, I knew that it was Big Ben Locke himself, who had spoken.

I knew it even before he carried me kicking and struggling into the lighted room, where that line of worthies who'd been so meek and motionless a minute before now exploded into sudden action. They came running and flocking about me, none of them exactly breaking their neck to hide their satisfaction at the somewhat undignified figure which I must have presented.

"Steady, my girl, steady!" warned Big Ben, as he held me in a clutch that would have done credit to a grizzly. Then he proceeded first to take away