head, giggle, and say he didn't know
why, but he'd ask his parents.

Van Ness couldn't see Helen Dear with opera glasses. He told me he
hated 'em stout, and, if possible, had figured on weddin' somebody
within ten years of his age--either way. I then felt it my duty to
inform him that her bankroll was stouter than she was. He goes into
high speed on the dignity thing and sets sail for Helen Dear like a
bloodhound after a nigger. He didn't want to look like a vulgar
fortune hunter, he claimed, but he figured if he could get his fingers
on a piece of Helen's dough, he could bribe G. Herbert to teach him the
art of laughin'.

The Kid tells Miss Vincent to forget about the thing, and he would
guarantee that G. Herbert and Helen Dear went away threatenin' to marry
each other. She said she'd leave the matter in our hands and held hers
out. I shook it and Scanlan kissed it--a trick he stole from Van Ness.

The dinner and dance that night was a knockout! Film City is lit up
like a plumber used to be on Saturday night, and the inhabitants is
dressed like the people that poses for the ads of any cigarette over
fifteen cents a pack. As usual, Miss Vincent had the rest of the dames
lookin' like sellin' platers in stake race and, believe me, some of
them society girls would have worried Venus. The Kid was so swelled up
because she kept within easy call all night that he forgot his promise
to fix up G. Herbert with Helen Dear. The latter, as we remark at the
laundry, was closer to Van Ness all night than the ocean is to the
beach, and it looked like the Kid was gonna have a tough time breakin'
'em up.

Along around eleven, Miss Vincent calls Scanlan aside and reminds him
that he had better start workin' for G. Herbert, because they would all
be beatin' it for the train in a hour. She also give out that, if he
didn't make good, she was off him for life. Scanlan bows--another
trick he copped from Van Ness--and takes me away down at the end of the
lawn to dope somethin' out.

I tripped over what I thought at first was a dead body and me and the
Kid props it up in the light.

"Ha, ha!" it says. "Tony he'sa laugha at you! Tony he'sa laugha at
everybody! _Bomb Germo_! thisa fel' tella me--ha, ha, ha!"

The Kid grunts in disgust, lets go and Tony bounces back on the lawn.

"Stewed to the scalp!" says Scanlan. "Frisk him!"

I run my hands over Tony and bring forth a bottle of gin and another
one of bourbon. The Ki