y
Mandeville," until the lady, as was her custom, triumphed.

He hurriedly and incompletely extinguished the cigar, and attracted by
the same opportunity for concealment which had appealed to Kate and
Patty, he lifted a corner of the heavy-fringed tablecover and sent Ruby
to join the other ladies.

Now, a lighted cigar applied suddenly to the ear of an excited and
half-hysterical conspirator, will generally produce results. In this
case it produced a scream, the bride, and after an interval, the
shrouded confidential friend.

"See where amazement on your mother sits," the ghost remarks in Hamlet,
but amazement never sat so hard on the wicked Gertrude of Denmark as it
did upon the four men who saw the tablecloth give up its ghosts.

At first there was silence. One of those throbbing, abominable silences
whose every second makes a situation worse and explanation more
impossible.

The "Black Crook" speech of welcome and appreciation died in the heart
of the molasses traveler. It did not somehow seem the safest answer to
Hawley's threatening--

"I think you gentlemen had better explain how you happen to be in my
private sitting-room. Perhaps we had better step out into the hall."

They did, and the echoes of their conversation brought Jimmie, that
trusty sleuth, upon the scene. With him he brought Horace as witness.
Also, he carried his dark lantern. He directed its glare fitfully at the
two strangers until Mead, catching a beam in his eye, turned and drove
Jimmie and his cohorts from the scene. They retreated in exceedingly
bad order to the bar, and then Jimmie announced in sepulchral whispers
that he had further identification to impart. He required much liquid
refreshment to nerve him to speech, and his audience required to be
similarly strengthened to hear.

"I've got 'em," he began, "I know 'em now. Horace, this is the biggest
thing you'll ever be anywhere near." And, as his hearers drew close
about him, he whispered "counterfeiters. The hull kit and bilin' of 'em."

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Kate and Patty wrestled afresh with the automobile veil, and
had succeeded in getting it tied in a limp string around the
bridesmaid's neck, leaving all her head and face uncovered. And when the
groom and the groomsman returned she, with a muffled gurgle, dived back
into the seclusion of the tablecover.

"We've got rid of those bounders," Hawley announced, and--

"Hello!" cried Mead, "Miss