t."

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Condy pulled up the anchor of
railroad iron and rowed back to Richardson's. Blix had six trout to
her credit, but Condy's ill-luck had been actually ludicrous.

"I can hold a string in the water as long as anybody," he complained,
"but I'd like to have the satisfaction of merely changing the bait
OCCASIONALLY. I've not had a single bite--not a nibble, y' know, all
day. Never mind, you got the big trout, Blix; that first one. That
five minutes was worth the whole day. It's been glorious, the whole
thing. We'll come down here once a week right along now."

But the one incident that completed the happiness of that wonderful day
occurred just as they were getting out of the boat on the shore by
Richardson's. In a mud-hole between two rocks they discovered a tiny
striped snake, hardly bigger than a lead pencil, in the act of
swallowing a little green frog, and they passed a rapt ten minutes in
witnessing the progress of this miniature drama, which culminated
happily in the victim's escape, and triumph of virtue.

"That," declared Blix as they climbed into the old buggy which was to
take them to the train, "was the one thing necessary. That made the
day perfect."

They reached the city at dusk, and sent their fish, lunch-basket, and
rods up to the Bessemers' flat by a messenger boy with an explanatory
note for Blix's father.

"Now," said Condy, "for Luna's and the matrimonial objects."

Chapter VII

Luna's Mexican restaurant has no address. It is on no particular
street, at no particular corner; even its habitues, its most
enthusiastic devotees, are unable to locate it upon demand. It is
"over there in the quarter," "not far from the cathedral there." One
could find it if one started out with that intent; but to direct
another there--no, that is out of the question. It CAN be reached by
following the alleys of Chinatown. You will come out of the last
alley--the one where the slave girls are--upon the edge of the Mexican
quarter, and by going straight forward a block or two and by keeping a
sharp lookout to right and left you will hit upon it. It is always to
be searched for. Always to be discovered.

On that particular Monday evening Blix and Condy arrived at Luna's some
fifteen minutes before seven. Condy had lost himself and all sense of
direction in the strange streets of the quarter, and they were on the
very brink of despair when Blix discovered the s