"I want you to know my friend,
Professor McCabe. Shorty, this is Captain Sir Hunter Kenwoodie, of the
British war office."

"Woodie," says I, "how goes it?"

"Chawmed to meet you, I'm suah," says he.

"Oh, splash!" says I. "You don't mean it?"

Well, say! he was a star. His get-up was somethin' between that of a
mounted cop and the leader of a Hungarian band, and he was as stiff as
if he'd been dipped in the glue-pot the day before. I'd heard somethin'
about him from Pinckney. He'd drawn plans and specifications for a new
forage cap for the British army, and on the strength of that he'd been
sent over to the States to inspect belt buckles, or somethin' of the
kind. Talk about your cinch jobs! those are the lads that can pull 'em
out. On his off days--and he had five or six a week--Woodie'd been
ornamentin' the top of tally-hos, and restin' up at such places as
Rockywold and Apawamis Arms.

Seems like he'd discovered Sadie, too, and had booked himself for her
steady company. From her story it looked like they'd been takin' a
little drive around the country, when they ran up against this crowd of
kids in checked dresses from the Incubator home. There was a couple of
nurses herdin' the bunch, and they'd all been sent up the Sound on an
excursion barge, for one of these fresh-air blow-outs that always seem
like an invitation for trouble. Everything had gone lovely until the
chowder barge had got mixed up with a tow of coal scows and got bumped
so hard that she sprung a leak.

There hadn't been any great danger, but the excitement came along in
chunks. The crew had run the barge ashore and landed the whole crowd,
but in the mix-up one of the women had backed off the gangplank into
three feet of water, and the other had sprained an ankle. The pair of
'em was all to the bad when Sadie and the Cap came along and found 'em
tryin' to lead their flock to the nearest railroad station.

Course, Sadie had piled right out, loaded the nurses into the carriage,
tellin' the driver to find the next place where the cars stopped and
come back after the kids with all the buggies he could find, while she
and Woodie stood by to see that the Incubators didn't stampede and get
scattered all over the lot.

"So, here we are," says Sadie, "with all these children, and a shower
coming up. Now, what shall we do and where shall we go?"

"Say," says I, "I may look like an information bureau, but I don't feel
the part."

Sadie couldn't get