he
back of his neck, tempting. Steel, in the lamp-light, is
discouraging to some temperaments. One of the body-guards was took
with urgent business, and left a streamer of funny noises behind him,
while the other gave autumn-leaf imitations in the corner. Struthers
looked like a dose of seasickness on a sour stomach.

"Get your hat. Quick!' I jobbed him, gentle and encouraging.

"Age allus commands respect. Therefore the sight of a six-foot,
grizzled Klondiker in a wide hat, benevolently prodding the night
editor in the short ribs and apple sauce, with eight bright and
chilly inches, engendered a certain respect in the reportorial staff.

"'You're going to tell Mrs. Morrow all about the pretty pictures,' I
says, like a father.

"'Let me go, damn you!' he frothed, but I wedged him into a corner of
the cab and took off his collar--in strips. It interfered with his
breathing, as I couldn't get a holt low enough to regulate his
respiration. He kicked out two cab windows, but I bumped his head
agin the woodwork, by way of repartee. It was a real pleasure, not
to say recreation, experimenting with the noises he made. Seldom I
get a neck I give a cuss to squeeze. His was number fifteen at
first, by the feel; but I reduced it a quarter size at a time.

"When we got there I helped him out, one hand under his chin, the
other back of his ears. I done it as much from regard of the
neighbours as animosities to him, for it was the still, medium small
hours. I tiptoed in with my treatise on the infamies of photography
gurgling under my hand, but at the door I stopped. It was ajar; and
there, under the light, I spied Morrow. In his arms I got glimpses
of black lace and wavy, brown hair, and a white cheek that he was
accomplishing wonders with. They wouldn't have heard a man-hole
explosion.

"'He's still fitting to be my pardner,' I thinks, and then I heard
Struthers's teeth chatter and grind. I looked at him, and the secret
of the whole play came to me.

"Never having known the divine passion, it ain't for me to judge, but
I tightened on his voice-box and whispered:

"'You've outlived your period of usefulness, Struthers, and it's time
to go. Let us part friends, however.' So I bade him Godspeed from
the top step.

"Looking back on the evening now, that adieu was my only mistake. I
limped for a week--he had a bottle in his hip pocket."

THE MULE DRIVER AND THE GARRULOUS MUTE

Bill had finished pa