Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/245

 "Save me! Save me!" she was able to gasp. "A man! A man is after me!"

The house was of the poverty-stricken kind whose living room opens on to the street. June had a confused vision of a glowing lamp, a bright fire, a dingy tablecloth and several people seated around it. Her wild impact upon the man who was about to put off from its threshold drove him backwards several paces into the room. At the same instant a female voice, loud and imperious, rose from the table.

"Shut the door, Elbert, can't yer? The fog's comin' in that thick it'll put out the perishin' fire."

The bewildered Elbert, raked fore and aft by fierce women, automatically obeyed the truculent voice at his back, even while he gave ground in a collision which seemed to rob him of any wit that he might possess. With a deft turn of the heel, he dealt the door a kick which effectually closed it in the murderous face of the halting and hesitating Keller.

June, shuddering in every vein, clung to her protector.

"Gawd-love-us-all!" Cries and commotion arose from the table, yet almost at once the imperious voice soared above the din. "Set her down, can't yer, Elbert? Didn't yer see that bloke?"

"Ah—I did," said Elbert, stolidly pressing his queer armful into a chair near the fire.

"Better git after him lively," said the voice at the table. "He's the one as did in Kitty Lewis last week."

Elbert, a young man six feet tall and proportionately broad of shoulder, was not however a squire of dames. With a scared look on a face that even in circumstances entirely favourable could hardly rank as a thing of