good
man, I have already assured you that Mr. Brooks and myself will see that
you get your money. What more do you want?"

"I want the money," Seltz cried, losing his patience, "and I want it
quick." He sprang from his chair, and his hand shot toward his pocket,
whence it reappeared in a moment with a revolver. "No more of this
nonsense, now. I want the cash."

The doctor, who had also sprung to his feet, started toward the angry
barber with outstretched hands. Seltz whirled on him, the revolver
pointed directly at Hartmann's head. "Keep off," he cried. In his
excitement he had forgotten Duvall, who at once seized him from behind.
"Look out, Doctor," he cried, as he threw his arm about the fellow's
neck and slowly throttled him. "He's gone quite insane--dangerous--take
away the revolver."

As he spoke, he tightened his arm about Seltz's throat until the latter
gasped for breath. The revolver fell from his nerveless grasp--he
clutched at the detective's arm and tried to tear it from his throat,
all the while groaning and sputtering at a great rate.

"Hopelessly insane, I fear," said the doctor, as he picked up the fallen
revolver. "You had best take him away at once."

"But, Doctor, I can't do anything with him in this violent state. Can't
you give him something to quiet him?"

"Nothing but a hypodermic. He wouldn't swallow a drug, I fear."

"Then give him a hypodermic at once. I've got to get him away from here,
somehow." He tightened his hold on Seltz's throat as the latter
struggled furiously, trying his best to get away. Luckily for Duvall,
his adversary was a man of only moderate strength, but he struggled like
the madman the doctor supposed him to be, trying in vain to speak. The
detective's arm, however, tightly wound about his throat, effectually
prevented his cries from becoming intelligible.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor," Duvall went on, as Hartmann prepared his
hypodermic needle and approaching the struggling man, took hold of one
of his arms and bared it with a quick motion. "I wouldn't have subjected
you to all this annoyance for anything. The poor fellow has been getting
worse for days, but I had no idea, when he left me this morning, that he
would be like this."

"It frequently happens," the doctor remarked, as he pressed the syringe
into the man's forearm and then withdrew it quickly. "There--he'll soon
be all right now. Just hold him there for a few moments longer, Mr.
Brooks and he'll be sleeping