aled
in full evening dress. This at two-thirty in the afternoon!...
"Curiouser and curiouser," as Alice remarked when she fell down the
Rabbit Hole.

"I'm clothed like this," explained Larry, "because the house where I
went last night to restore our lost fortunes was raided by the police,
and I escaped by the skin of my teeth. Most of the other chaps were
arrested, I saw in the papers this morning, but my usual luck was with
me. I happened to hide in a place where they happened not to look--or,
rather, there was a fellow who looked, but he was the right sort. A
hundred-dollar-bill fixed up a get-away for me, but not till a couple of
hours ago. Eyes turned the other way till I'd passed the danger zone.
Then I taxied down here without waiting to eat, for I thought the poor
girlie would be sure to come home to roost. All's well that ends well!
Am I or am I not the 'smart guy?' I pulled a thousand dollars out of
roulette last night at poor old Jimmie Follette's. Had only seventy-five
to start with. The wheel gave me all the rest. I backed zero and she
kept repeating. Raised my stakes whenever I won. See here, I've got the
spoils on me--all but the hundred I had to shed--and twenty-five for the
taxi. Let's gloat."

Chuckling, he emptied his pockets of gold and greenbacks. He was in his
own eyes and in Patty's the hero of a great adventure. "What did I tell
you about Larry?" she challenged us.

When he heard about the servants, he threw back his curly head and
laughed. He'd been living in town, it seemed, for more than a week.
"There's such a lot of red tape they tie you up in if you go bankrupt,"
he explained to Jack. "Never was so bored in my life! But I kept
consoling myself with the thought, 'I'm sure to bob up serenely in the
end. I always have and I always shall.' Now here's this money for
instance. If I can make a thousand out of seventy-five, what can't I
make out of a thousand? I wish I'd gone _seriously_ in for roulette
before. I might have known I'd win. We'll get some more servants and
begin again, for this house is our castle. 'God's in His heaven, all's
well with the world.'"

"But--but, Larry dear, we owe Captain Winston heaps of money for customs
duty," Pat ventured, wistfully reluctant to dash his high spirits, yet
goaded by conscience. "Of course I can sell the things, but
meanwhile----"

"Sell nothing!" exclaimed Larry. "Now you've come home and can sign
papers, we'll mortgage the place, and then we'