big gray eyes, and gen'rally takin' one of them
long, lingerin' looks; and we was both leanin' back not so very far
apart, with the slides of the cab shuttin' everything else out--and then
all of a sudden I heard her sort of whisper "Well?"--and--and--Ah, say!
With a pair of cherry ripes as close as that, what else was there to do?

"Why, Torchy!" says she, jumpin' away. "What made you dare----Quick,
now, here comes Marjorie. Over on the front seat! And--and perhaps I
shall see you again sometime."

"Your eyesight'll be bad if you don't, Vee," says I. "Good-by."

Just before the Ellins' front door closed behind her I caught the wave
of a handkerchief; so I guess she can't be so awful mad. Ride back to
the office? Say, I paid off the taxi and floated down Fifth-ave. as
light as if it was paved with gas balloons.

"Huh!" grunts Mr. Robert, after I'd made my report. "Brought home a
steamer friend, did she? Who did you say it was?"

"Well, between you and me," says I, "it's Vee. You remember--the one at
the girls' boardin' school tea party when----"

"Eh?" says he. "Ah, that one? Then it wasn't--er--exactly a hardship for
you to meet this particular steamer, eh, Torchy?"

"Do I look it?" says I.

And Mr. Robert he winks back; for, as I happen to know, he's been there
himself. It's that friendly wink though, that makes me remember puttin'
up that game on him with the fake message, and somehow I felt cheap and
mean. Here he was, treatin' me white and square, and I'd been handin'
him a piece of fresh bunk.

"Mr. Robert," says I, standin' pigeontoed and flushin' up some, "you
remember that message from the bridge people--Trimble, it was signed?"

"Oh, yes," says he. "He came, all right, about a quarter to three."

"Gee!" says I, and walks out.

For when things start comin' your way in clusters like that, what's the
use tryin' to duck?

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGH'S NOVELS

May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.

TARZAN THE UNTAMED

Tells of Tarzan's return to the life of the ape-man in his search for
vengeance on those who took from him his wife and home.

JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN

Records the many wonderful exploits by which Tarzan proves his right to
ape kingship.

A PRINCESS OF MARS

Forty-three million miles from the earth--a succession of the weirdest
and most astounding adventures in fiction. John