's having it out
with her maid now. Come in."

She'd dug Buddy out of the wardrobe and had him propped up in a corner.

"Better unstopper him and take off the bandages," says I.

And say, he had a lot of language corked up inside of him. It wasn't
very sisterly, either, and most of it would have sounded better at a
race-track; but I shut the transom and motioned to Sadie to let him
spiel away, never chippin' in a word, only standing one side and lookin'
him over.

So far as the outside went he was a credit to the family--one of these
slim clean-cut youngsters, with a lot of curly red hair, pinky-white
cheeks, and a pair of blue eyes that had nine kinds of deviltry in 'em.
I could figure out how mother might be able not to see anything but good
in Buddy. Hanged if I could get very sore on him myself, and knowin' how
he'd been cuttin' up, at that.

"Well," says I, when he'd got out of breath some, "feel any better, do
you?"

"Huh!" says he, givin' me a squint sideways. "Some cheap skate of a
private detective, eh! You can't throw a scare into me that way, sis.
Chase him out."

"Buddy," says I, "give up the rings."

"How'd you know there was more than one?" says he.

"Give up," says I, holdin' out me hand.

He did it, like a little man. There was two besides the marquise; one an
emerald as big as a lima bean, and the other a solitaire spark that
could have been shoved up for three or four hundred. You see, a woman
like Mrs. Purdy Pell generally has a collection of those things lyin'
around on her dressin'-table, and; knew if Buddy'd got any, he'd made a
haul.

"I'm ashamed of you, Buddy," says I.

"You needn't be," says he. "I guess you'd do the same if you had a
sister that wanted to see you starve in the streets. Oh, you needn't
screw up your eyebrows, Sadie. It's so. And if you don't cough up a
thousand and let me go, I'll swipe anything in sight. I can stand being
pinched if you can afford to have me."

Sadie threw up her hands at that, and began walkin' up and down the
room. "Do you hear that?" says she. "That's the kind of a brother I've
got."

"It's something awful," says I. "Just hearin' him talk makes me feel
shivery. It beats the band how wicked some of these cigarette desperados
do get. Don't, Buddy, or I'll faint. I wouldn't dare stay in the room if
your sister wa'n't handy to tie you up again in case you started to cut
loose."

"I've got a good notion to push in your face," says he.

"Do