gly--"I want a drink."

"Nothing doing," muttered the landlord sulkily.

Lefever's flash-light focussed on a United States license hanging back
of the bar. "Is that a mere frame-up, Philippi?" he demanded, walking
significantly toward the vender's authority.

"Nothing in the house to-night."

"Then," announced Lefever calmly, "I arrest you."

Philippi started. "Arrest me?"

"For obtaining a thirst under false pretenses. Come, now, before we
slip the irons on, get us something to eat. I'll go up-stairs and pick
out a room to sleep in."

"I tell you," insisted Philippi profanely, "there are no rooms for you
to sleep in up-stairs."

"And I," retorted Lefever, "tell you there are. Anyway, I left a
sewing-machine up-stairs here three years ago, and promised to keep it
oiled for the lady. This is a good time to begin."

With Lefever making the old steps creak, ahead, and Pardaloe, with
his long, soft, pigeon-toed tread close behind, the unwilling
landlord was taken up the stairs, and the two men thoroughly searched
the house. Lefever lowered his voice when the hunt began through
the bedrooms--few of which contained even a bed--but he kept up a
running fire of talk that gave Philippi no respite from anxiety.

Outside the kitchen quarters, which likewise were rigorously searched,
not a soul could be found in the house. One room only, over the
kitchen, gave hope of uncovering something. The party reached the door
of this room through a narrow, tortuous passageway along an attic
gable. The door was locked. Philippi told them it belonged to a
sheep-herder who did not use it often. He protested he had no key.
Pardaloe knocked and, getting no response, tried unsuccessfully to
force the lock. Lefever motioned him aside and, after knocking loudly
on the door himself, laid his shoulder against it. The door creaked
and sprung in crazy protest. The panels cracked, the stubborn frame
gave, and with a violent crash Lefever pushed completely through the
locked barrier and threw his flash-light inside. Pardaloe, urging the
unwilling Philippi ahead, followed.

The room, unfinished under the rafters, was destitute of furnishings,
and bore traces of long disuse. Stretched on the floor toward the
middle of it, and side by side, lay two men. One of them was very
large, the other not more than half his companion's size. Lefever
kneeling over the man nearest the door listened for signs of
breathing, and laid his head to the man's hear