He led them out into the hall and down to the stairway where he had taken Bessy. As before, all appeared quiet below.
"I guess it's safe.... Girls, let this be a lesson to you."
"Never any more for mine," whimpered Gail.
But Lorna was of more tempered metal.
"Believe me, Daren, I'm glad you knocked the lamps out of those swell boobs," she whispered, passionately. "Dick Swann used me like dirt. The next guy like him who tries to get gay with me will have some fall, I'll tell the world.... Me for Harry! There's nothing in this q-t stuff.... And say, what do you know about Bessy Bell? She came here to save us.... Hot dog, but she's a peach!"
Lane admonished the girls to hurry and watched them until they reached the street and turned the corner out of sight.
CHAPTER XVII
The reaction from that night landed Lane in the hospital, where, during long weeks when he did have a lucid interval, he saw that his life was despaired of and felt that he was glad of it.
But he did not die. As before, the weak places in his lungs healed over and he began to mend, and gradually his periods of rationality increased until he wholly gained his mental poise. It was, however, a long time before he was strong enough to leave the hospital.