e recovers quick.

"Why, he's no relative at all," says Tidman. "I assure you that I
never saw the--"

"Naughty, naughty!" says I. "Didn't I spot that peaked beak of his,
just like yours? That's a fam'ly nose, that is."

"Cousin," admits Tidman, turnin' sulky.

"And sort of a blot on the escutcheon?" I goes on.

Tidman nods.

"Booze or dope?" I asks.

"Both, I think," says Tidman. "He--he has almost ruined my career."

"Pulls the Black Hand stuff on you, eh?" says I.

Tidman groans.

"I lost two positions because of him," says he. "It is only when he
gets desperate that he hunts me up. I hadn't seen him for over two
years until this morning. I'd been out for a walk, and he must have
followed me. We were in the front vestibule, and he was begging, as
usual,--threatening, too,--when I saw Mr. Pettigrew coming in. So I
hurried Ralph through the hall and downstairs. I thought he could stay
there until I was through tutoring; then I could give him something and
send him off. But that Mrs. Flynn--"

"She's a swell short-stop," says I. "Doin' extra duty, too. Got a
couple of fives on you?"

"Why, ye-e-es," says Tidman; "but what--"

"You're goin' to reward her for sittin' on Cousin Ralph so long," says
I. "Give her one of the fives. You can slip the other to him as we
shoo him through the back door. Now, let's go relieve Mrs. Flynn."

From the rough way we collared Ralph and led him off, she must have
thought we was headin' him straight for Sing Sing. Anyway, that
five-spot kept her mind busy.

Our remarks to Ralph were short but meaty. "You see the bally muss you
got me into, I hope," says Tidman.

"And just remember," I adds, "when the fit strikes you to call again,
that Mrs. Flynn is always on hand."

"She's a female hyena, that woman," says Cousin Ralph, rubbin' his back
between groans. "I--I wouldn't get within a mile of her again for a
fortune."

Couldn't have been more'n ten minutes before the three of us--Waldo,
Tidman, and me--was all grouped in the lib'ry again, just as though
nothing had happened.

"My hunch was right," says I. "He wasn't a burglar. Ask Tidman."

Tidman backs me up hearty.

"Then who the deuce was he," demands Waldo, "and what was he--"

"Now, say!" says I. "You've been let out, ain't you? He's gone; no
police, no court proceedin's, no scandal in the servants' quarters.
Ain't that enough?"

"You're quite right," says Waldo. "And we still have