tanding in the doorway, grinning as though at
some rare laughter-provoking thought.

"Well, old man," Hapgood smiled back at him, "whence the mirth?"

Conniston chuckled gleefully.

"Another joke, Roger, my boy! I wonder when the Fates are going to
drop us in order to give their undivided attention to some other lucky
mortals? You know that twenty-seven dollars and sixty cents?"

"Well?"

"I've lost it!" Conniston laughed outright as his ready imagination
depicted amusing complications ahead. "Every blamed cent of it!"

"What!" Hapgood was upon his feet, staring. Hapgood's complacency was
a thing of the past.

Conniston nodded, his grin still with him.

"Every cent of it! And here we are the Lord knows how far from home--"

"Have you looked through all your pockets?"

"Every one. And I found--"

"What?"

"A hole," chuckled Conniston. "Just a hole, and nothing more."

Hapgood jerked the trousers from the shaking hand of the man whom
such a catastrophe could move to laughter, and made a hurried search.

"What the devil are we going to do?" he gasped, when there was at last
no doubting the truth.

Conniston shrugged. "I haven't had time to figure out that part of it.
Haven't you any money?"

"About seven dollars," snapped Hapgood. "And a long time that will
keep the two of us. It's up to you, Greek!"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that you've got to wire your dad for money. There's nothing
left to do. Dang it!" he finished, bitterly, throwing the empty
trousers back to Conniston, "I was a fool to ever come with you."

"You've said that before. But"--his good humor still tickled by his
loss, which he refused to take seriously in spite of the drawn face
staring into his--"I haven't even the money to wire the old gent!"

"Oh, I'll pay for it."

"I didn't want to do it so soon," Conniston hesitated. "But it begins
to look as though--"

"There's nothing to it. You've got to do it! Why, man, do you realize
what a confounded mess you've got us into?"

Conniston went back into the bath-room rather seriously. But a moment
later Hapgood heard him chuckling again.

The Japanese boy came to summon them, and they followed him, once more
clean and feeling respectable, into a cozy little breakfast-room where
their hostess was waiting for them. And over their cold meat, tinned
fruits and vegetables, and fresh milk Conniston told her of their
misfortune. She laughed with him at his account of the winning of the
two h