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257 mand admittance in the name of the law. They won't bother you; but stay there until I whistle; then come back and lend a hand."

Smith disappeared in his turn around the corner of the house; and in another moment the silence was broken by the tramp and scuffle as of many feet, a resounding clatter of fists on wood, and a bellowed command.

Odell drew his pistol and a pocket electric flash, and motioning Miller to one side of the kitchen door, took up his position at the other. The light in the side window had been suddenly extinguished; and now above the clamor from the front of the house Odell caught the sound of stumbling footsteps within, and once a woman's frightened, convulsive sob.

The kitchen door swung inward, and a man's figure appeared supporting that of a woman who clung to him desperately. As he stepped down from the rickety porch a piercing shaft of light glared into his face, and Odell's voice commanded:

"Up with your hands, Farley Drew!"

"You!" Drew emitted a string of oaths; but he thrust the girl roughly from him and retreated a step or two, slowly elevating his hands in the air. His debonair insouciance was gone, and in the glare of the electric torch his face showed a distorted mask of evil passions.

"You thought Miller and I were safely under guard at that boathouse, didn't you?" Odell paused to blow a blast upon his whistle. "It didn't occur to you that it might be burned to the waterline; that Pete was dead and Tony at Headquarters telling all he knows.—Oh, would you!"

For with the realization of what this intelligence meant