Pepper certainly was not drunk.
"Do you know--anything about Lorna ?" "Nothing specifically to prove anything.

She's in the thick of this thing in Middleville.

Only a few nights ago I saw her at a roadhouse, out on the State Road, with a crowd of youngsters.

They were having a high old time, I'll say.

They danced jazz, and I saw Lorna drink lemonade into which liquor had been poured from a hip-pocket flask." Lane put his head on his hands, as if to rest it, or still the throbbing there.
"Who took Lorna to this place ?" he asked, presently, breathing heavily.
"I don't know.