"Well, they won't find that other man tonight!" cried Bangs, in a tone that showed he felt impish delight in making all this trouble. "And I am going to close the house now. I've said my last word, gentlemen. If you want to pack your trunks, I'll keep the dynamos running till nine o'clock. There is a combination train leaves here--over the spur track, you understand, at that hour----" "Confound you! Yes!" cried somebody. "But it only goes as far as the Junction and there is no connection there for New York until five o'clock in the morning. A nice train for ladies to take!" "And how about those of us who have our autos here?" chimed in another. "The bridge is down. Your own motor bus is out of commission. The other roads are impassable for cars. You ought to be beaten to death, Bangs!" "Ye-es--" drawled a sleek, dapper little man, whom, so Ryder told himself, one would naturally expect to speak in a crisp, quick tone, quite contrary to the one he used. "Ye-es, suppose we do tha-at same thing. It would not do the gu-uests of this hotel much good just now, perhaps; but it would rid the wo-orld of one rascal. Tha-at would be to the good." Colonel Brack leaned over the counter and shook a long finger at the manager. "I have lived in this hotel fourteen years, sub!" he exclaimed. "No manager can dispossess me. I refuse to get out, suh--I refuse to get out!" [Illustration: "No manager can dispossess me. I refuse to get out"] "That's right! We all refuse to get out!" was the vociferous chorus. "Then you'll stay in the dark and without heat and without service," growled Bangs doggedly. "I'm doing my best for you. I'll be liable for no further expense in a house of which I am dispossessed--that's flat!" Bangs here erased himself from the scene by dodging into the private office and banging the door. The clerk oh duty was instantly besieged by a part of the crowd. He could do absolutely nothing to assist in untangling the difficulty. Like the other hotel employees, he was as much disturbed over his abrupt discharge as the guests were over their dismissal by the manager. "I shall remain here, even if that rascal shuts off the heat and lights," Colonel Brack loudly declared, in the midst of the group of which John Ryder was one. "It is a preposterous--an impossible situation, suh! Whoever heard the like? A hotel cannot close its doors and turn its guests out upon the streets on half an hour's notice." "But Bangs will do as he says. I know the dog. When he's ugly, he'll do anything," returned one man gloomily. "He may turn off the heat and light; but here I stay!" reiterated the colonel, with all the determination of Horatius on the Bridge. "Not a pleasant prospect," said a drummer. "I reckon I'll go and pack up and take that nine o'clock switchback."