soon as he saw me
he gave utterance to a blood-curdling yell of--'Here she is!'

"In response to his call three of his understudies came on with
headlong greeting.

"'You are Beth, aren't you?' Ptolemy asked me. Then he drew me aside
and in mysterious whispers told me where you were and that you had
written me to join you here. He added that stepdaddy never remembered
to mail letters. I went within and interviewed Huldah who confirmed
his information.

"Presently I saw a taxi stop before the house.

"'That's him!' exclaimed Ptolemy.

"'Him who?' I asked.

"'Rob somebody--stepdaddy's college chum. He wrote he was coming, and
they thought they had postponed him.'

"With a sprint of speed the four Polydores surrounded your Mr.
Rossiter, all talking at once. I came to the rescue, of course, and
explained the situation, and we decided to follow you.

"Ptolemy was promoter for the trip and suggested the advisability of
his accompanying us as courier and future nursemaid to Diogenes. He
was intending to come anyway, but thought he'd wait for us. He had all
his belongings packed."

"He hasn't many except those he had on," said Silvia thoughtfully.

"He has some swimming trunks, two collars, two shirts, some mismated
socks, homemade fishing tackle and a battered baseball bat. We came
away surreptitiously to escape detection by the trio left behind. I
knew you wouldn't welcome his presence--but he said he was coming
anyway, so we thought we might as well bring him and express him
back."

After visiting with Beth for a few moments, Silvia and I withdrew to
talk matters over confidentially.

"All's well that ends well," I quoth.

"It hasn't ended yet," reminded Silvia. "I trust Ptolemy didn't reveal
what you said about Rob's being a woman-hater and Beth a flirt."

Ptolemy conveniently appeared just then, as he generally did in the
midst of private interviews. Silvia asked him if he had repeated those
remarks to Beth or Rob.

"Why, no," he said. "I knew you didn't want her to know, because
stepdaddy said so, and I thought he wouldn't like to be called that,
and I wasn't going to give Beth away to him."

"You're all right, Ptolemy!" I exclaimed, for the first time awarding
him approbation.

Out on the veranda we met Rob.

"Say, those Polydores certainly have the punch and pep," he declared.
"I'd like to have fetched the whole bunch along with me."

"If you had," I replied dryly, "our life's friendship would