he wrong dope. For instance, once I got next to a super-energized
specimen that come in from the north end of nowhere, and before I was
through the experience had left me out of breath.

It was while Sadie and me was livin' at the Perzazzer hotel, before we
moved out to Rockhurst-on-the-Sound. Early one evenin' we was sittin', as
quiet and domestic as you please, in our twelve by fourteen cabinet
finished dinin' room on the seventh floor. We was gazin' out of the open
windows watchin' a thunder storm meander over towards Long Island, and
Tidson was just servin' the demitasses, when there's a ring on the
'phone. Tidson, he puts down the tray and answers the call.

"It's from the office, sir," says he. "Some one to see you, sir."

"Me?" says I. "Get a description, Tidson, so I'll know what to expect."

At that he asks the room clerk for details, and reports that it's two
young ladies by the name of Blickens.

"What!" says Sadie, prickin' up her ears. "You don't know any young women
of that name; do you, Shorty?"

"Why not?" says I. "How can I tell until I've looked 'em over?"

"Humph!" says she. "Blickens!"

"Sounds nice, don't it?" says I. "Kind of snappy and interestin'. Maybe
I'd better go down and----"

"Tidson," says Sadie, "tell them to send those young persons up here!"

"That's right, Tidson," says I. "Don't mind anything I say."

"Blickens, indeed!" says Sadie, eyin' me sharp, to see if I'm blushin' or
gettin' nervous. "I never heard you mention any such name."

"There's a few points about my past life," says I, "that I've had sense
enough to keep to myself. Maybe this is one. Course, if your
curiosity----"

"I'm not a bit curious, Shorty McCabe," she snaps out, "and you know it!
But when it comes to----"

"The Misses Blickens," says Tidson, holdin' back the draperies with one
hand, and smotherin' a grin with the other.

Say, you couldn't blame him. What steps in is a couple of drippy females
that look like they'd just been fished out of a tank. And bein' wet
wa'n't the worst of it. Even if they'd been dry, they must have looked
bad enough; but in the soggy state they was the limit.

They wa'n't mates. One is tall and willowy, while the other is short and
dumpy. And the fat one has the most peaceful face I ever saw outside of a
pasture, with a reg'lar Holstein-Friesian set of eyes,--the round, calm,
thoughtless kind. The fact that she's chewin' gum helps out the dairy
impression, too. It's plain