turned its knob, which being rusty from age and filth, creaked
considerably, its grating noise awakened one of the road kids, who
fathoming the reason of Jim's opening the door and darting into the
hallway, let out a piercing shout, "that Kansas Shorty's kid was making
his get-away". This warning shriek not only awakened every one of the
sleepers but sobered Kansas Shorty so suddenly that he made a headlong
dive through the open door, beyond which Jim was running down the
hallway trying to make his escape. He caught the lad before he even
reached the stairway and dragged the shuddering boy back into the
filthy room, carefully locking the door behind them.

He pulled the boy across the table, and after one of the inhuman
monsters had stuffed a filthy rag into the poor lad's mouth to smother
his screams, Kansas Shorty, as the jocker of the lad, gleefully assisted
by the others in his savage task, pounded poor Jim until he became
unconscious.

[Illustration: Kansas Shorty pulled the lad across the table, and after
one of the inhuman monsters had stuffed a filthy rag into the poor boy's
mouth to smother his pitiful screams, they pounded him until he became
unconscious.]

When Jim came to, Kansas Shorty, of whom he expected this last of all,
was sitting upon the edge of the bed upon which he had been placed, and
while he fanned the poor boy's bruised and battered face with a folded
newspaper, he was talking to him in a softly purring voice, telling him
how sorry he felt to have been forced to punish him for having attempted
to run away from his "protector", who intended to make out of "Dakota
Jim" a "man" who in the future would be proud to tell other plingers
that Kansas Shorty had been his jocker.