the spot! Ain't a clerk here
can put up a drink to touch her. She's a sort of knack at it. Every once
in a while, when the Boss sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a
drink."

"And does she?" asked the man with an interested grin.

"Well, I guess! But first she goes back and sees how long it is since
he's had a drink. What he drank last. How warm he is. When he ate last.
Then she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a little touch of
acid, and a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple, or something sour
and cooling, and it hits the spot just as no spot was ever hit before.
I honestly believe that the INTEREST she takes in it is half the
trick, for I watch her closely and I can't come within gunshot of her
concoctions. She has a running bill here. Her father settles once a
month. She gives nine-tenths of it away. Hardly ever touches it herself,
but when she does she makes me mix it. She's just old persimmons. Even
the scrub-boy of this establishment would fight for her. It lasts the
year round, for in winter it's some poor, frozen cuss that she's warming
up on hot coffee or chocolate."

"Mighty queer specimen she had this time," volunteered another. "Irish,
hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while in his face.
Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? There's a case of 'fight
for her!' Wonder who he is?"

"I think," said a third, "that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and I
suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures and
knows him that way. I've heard that he is a master hand with the birds,
and that would just suit the Bird Woman to a T."

On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first crossing and
there she stopped. "Now, will you promise to ride fast enough to make up
for the five minutes that took?" she asked. "I am a little uneasy about
Mrs. Duncan."

Freckles turned his wheel into the street. It seemed to him he had
poured that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body instead of
his stomach. It even went to his brain.

"Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how intoxicating
'twould be?" he asked.

There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel. She
laughed gleefully.

"Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing," she teased.

"I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding you
better. Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?"

The Angel jeered. "Wild horses co