Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: "_Haskins quizzically looked him over_"] THE LASH OLIN L. LYMAN Author of "The Trail of the Grand Seigneur" [Illustration] BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS 1909 Copyright 1909 by RICHARD G. BADGER _All Rights Reserved_ Printed at The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. TO C. E. A CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I A Star Chamber Session 9 II An Arrival 18 III Micky 29 IV Fists and the Man 36 V The Ironworkers' Ball--and Maisie 47 VI The Web 61 VII Loneliness 67 VIII An Evening Call 77 IX Not on the Programme 87 X The Little Red Devil 99 XI In the Morning 106 XII Why She Cried 113 XIII A Wager 122 XIV A Discredited Henchman 133 XV Useful Information 145 XVI His Better Side 155 XVII The Coup in Sight 165 XVIII A Counter Move 178 XIX Suspense 187 XX Out of the Past 195 XXI The Lash 204 XXII The Story 215 XXIII Wanderlust 224 XXIV The Long Road 234 THE LASH CHAPTER I A STAR CHAMBER SESSION The speaker paused for a moment to pass his handkerchief over his fevered brow. Up from the ugly, leering, little eyes swept the swabbing linen, traversing the smooth top of the round head and disappearing mysteriously at the rear. The reason for this was obvious. The teeth of time take kindly to the hirsute and the speaker was very bald. Only a narrow fringe of reddish hair divided the rear depression of his fevered brow from the nape of his fat red neck.