e dust in the
studio to-day. I like work in the open air best."

"So do I," confessed Alice. "Now, Daddy, you must stop talking," and she
shook her finger at him. "You listen--we'll talk."

"You mean _you_ will," laughed Ruth, for Alice generally did her own,
and part of Ruth's share also.

They walked on, talking at intervals of the incident of the spy and
again of the prospective trip to the West.

"Do you know just where we are going, Russ?" asked Ruth, as she kept
pace with him.

"Not exactly," he replied, stealing a glance at the girl beside him, for
she was a picture fair to look upon with her almost golden hair blown
about her face by the light breeze, while her blue eyes looked into the
more sober gray ones of Russ. "I believe Mr. Pertell intends to go to
several places, so as to get varied views. I know we are to go to a
ranch, for one thing."

"Fine!" exclaimed Alice, with almost boyish enthusiasm, as she walked at
the side of Paul. "Daddy, do you want me to become a cowgirl?" she
asked, turning to Mr. DeVere, who was in the rear.

"I guess if you wanted to be one, you would whether I wanted you to or
not," he replied, with an indulgent smile. "You have a way with you!"

"Hasn't she, though!" agreed Paul.

They reached the apartment house where the DeVeres and Russ lived. Paul
came in for a little while, but declined an invitation to stay to tea.

"I've got quite a piece of work on for to-morrow," he said, as he left.

"What is it?" asked Alice.

"There's to be a new play, 'An Inventor's Troubles,' and one of the
inventions is a sort of rope fire escape. There's a rope, coiled in a
metal case. You take it to your hotel room with you, and in case of fire
you fasten the case to the window casing, grab one end of the rope, and
jump. The rope is supposed to pay out slowly, by means of friction
pulleys, and you come safely to the ground."

"Did you invent that?" asked Ruth, who had not heard all that was said.

"Oh, no, some fellow did, and the city authorities are going to give him
a chance to demonstrate it before they will recommend it to hotel
proprietors. And I'm to be the 'goat,' if you will allow me to say so."

"How?" asked Alice.

"I'm to come down on the rope from the tenth story of some building.
This will serve as the city test, and at the same time Mr. Pertell has
fixed up a story in which the fire escape scene figures. I've got to
study up a little bit before to-morrow."

"It--it