Osgood hung on a while longer, although Shultz and Hooker kept raising alternately.

"You each took one card," said Ned at last, "and, as you're running wild, I'm going to quit. Fight it out between you."

"Will you lend me some money, Ned?" asked Shultz.

"Sure," was the answer. "How much do you want?"

"Well, let me have two dollars' worth of chips. I may want more."

"You're pretty sure, aren't you?" said Hooker. "You must think you've got this pot cinched."

"My chips talk," said Shultz.

"Well, mine talk, too," snapped Roy.

They made several bets.

"You must have a big hand," muttered Hooker. "Well, so have I."

"Oh, go as far as you like," sneered Shultz. "You can bet all night if you wish, and I'll stick by as long as I can get any chips."

"What have you got?"

"Four bullets," announced Shultz triumphantly, as he lay his cards down, exposing four aces.

Hooker took a deep breath. "Well, that beats. I thought I had a pretty good hand. It's your pot, Shultz."

"Hold on! Hold on!" spluttered Piper, his eyes bulging. "Just wait a minute. There's something queer here."

Every one turned to him, Shultz savagely asking what was the matter.

"There's something queer about this," reiterated Sleuth. "Why, I-I'm sure I held an ace in my hand when I laid it down."

"Go on! you're dotty!" snarled Shultz. "There are only four aces in the pack."

But Sleuth had grabbed the discards, and, turning part of them face upwards, he exposed to view the fifth ace!

CHAPTER IX

THE BLOW AND AFTERWARDS.

There was a moment of stunned and breathless silence as the young gamesters stared at the fifth ace thus exposed to view-the ace of spades. This silence was broken by Hooker, who, glaring at Shultz, suddenly snarled:

"You sneaking, cheating robber!"

With that cry, he leaped up, overturning his chair, and made a grab for Shultz's throat. The latter had likewise risen, and with a sweep of his arm he brushed aside Hooker's clawlike hand, at the same time driving his fist hard and straight at Roy's face.

The blow landed with a sickening smack, and Hooker was hurled backward by the force of it, tripping over his upset chair. Both his arms were flung wide in an effort to save himself. His head struck with a thud against the marble mantelpiece, the shock being sufficient to knock one or two bits of bric-a-brac to the floor. Beneath one end of the mantel he collapsed in a heap, with his shoulders against the wall, his head dropping limply over on one of them.

Springer, having failed to seize Shultz in time to check that blow, now grabbed him with both hands and clung fast, panting in his ear:

"For the lul-lul-love of goodness, what have you dud-done?"

With a hissing sound, Shultz drew his breath through his clenched teeth, exposed by his parted lips. His nostrils were dilated, and the rage of an aroused animal blazed in his eyes.

"A fight here!" fluttered Cooper. "Don't start a fight here!"

"Start one!" said Shultz hoa.r.s.ely. "I didn't. He started it. He called me a cheat and a robber. I'll teach him to apply such words to me!"

"Keep Charley away," commanded Osgood, quickly kneeling beside the silent figure of the boy who had been struck down. "This is very bad business. Come, Hooker, brace up." But when he sought to arouse the stricken youth, Hooker's body simply slid over sidewise with a little sc.r.a.ping sound against the wall, one arm rolling lifelessly across his breast to allow his knuckles to drop with a faint, soft knock upon the thick carpet.

"For the love of goodness!" repeated Springer in a horrified voice. "He lul-looks like a dud-dead one!"

Fiercely Shultz jerked away from Phil's restraining hands. "You don't have to hold me," he rasped. "What do you think I'd do, hit him again when he's down?"

Betraying the alarm he could not repress, Osgood made one more effort to arouse the limp fellow on the floor. Then he spoke swiftly, excitedly to the others.

"Somebody bring some water from the bathroom," he directed. "Roy's stunned. I'll loosen up his collar so he can breathe. Help me place him on his back. Bring the water quick!"

Trembling and sick at heart, Piper found his way to the bathroom, drew a gla.s.s of water from the lavatory faucet, and hurried back with it.

Osgood and Springer were kneeling on either side of the prostrate lad, while Cooper, pale and agitated, stood looking on as if he could not bring himself to offer a.s.sistance or did not know what to do. Shultz, his jaws hard set, his breast heaving, stood at a little distance, watching.

"Give me the water, Piper," requested Osgood, plainly trying to maintain as much calmness as possible. "Hand Phil a book or magazine or something to fan him with. Some one open a window and let some of this smoke out.

Make as little noise as you can. Perhaps they didn't hear him fall, and if we can bring him round all right, n.o.body must ever know what happened."

Hooker's tie had been removed and his collar and neckband unb.u.t.toned. He lay quite still-horribly still, Piper thought. There was a bruise on his almost ghastly cheek where Shultz's fist had struck. His eyes were closed, and the lids did not even seem to flutter. In his white shirt-sleeves, he seemed fearfully deathlike to the staring eyes of Billy Piper.

"Get that window open, I tell you!" ordered Osgood almost fiercely, as he began pouring water into the palm of his hand and bathing Hooker's temples. "Fan him, Springer."

"This is horrible!" Sleuth whispered to himself, as he opened a window.

"I wish I'd never come here to-night."

After a few minutes Shultz began to betray concern. "Isn't he coming round?" he asked.

"If you've killed him," said Piper bitterly, "you won't be the only one to suffer for it. n.o.body in this bunch ever will be able to hold his head up again in Oakdale."

"Oh, he'll come round all right. I didn't even hit him on the jaw. I don't see how he was knocked out so easy."

"It was the b.u.mp he got against the mantel," said Osgood, his dripping hand in Hooker's hair. "Here's the spot on his head. It's swollen almost as big as a hen's egg."

"Perhaps-perhaps his skull is fractured," muttered Piper.

"He brought it on himself," a.s.serted Shultz in self-defense. "I don't know where that extra ace came from. I got all of mine honestly and squarely. He had no right to call me a cheat."