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186 ing, brown hair. The other girl was paler, more nervous, but almost as pretty. Neither was over seventeen. The nervous girl slipped away in a few moments, and sat down at a table with a sailor. Teresa was still talking with the other, when at the far end of the room a disturbance began. The bouncer leaped to the fray, and ejected two individuals; but in a moment the room was in an uproar. The crowd surged down toward the door, overturning tables and chairs; every second man drew a knife or pistol. Basil, Erhart, and the prize-tighter pushed the three women toward the wall, and made a buffer between them and the crowd; but in spite of their efforts they were caught in the jam and forced under a hail of broken glass, toward the one narrow entrance. Basil stretched out his arms on either side of Teresa, and with vicious digs of his elbows and fists, tried to protect her. Gleaming eyes turned toward him, and one man lifted a knife. They were crushed in the shouting, heaving mass. Teresa, half-suffocated, almost lost consciousness, but fear for Basil sustained her. In a final, fierce stampede they were pushed through the door.

When they found themselves in the street, and succeeded in reaching the other three, it was discovered that Erhart had a deep knife-cut in the arm, and by common consent the expedition broke up. The Ransomes took Alice home. She