girl--the little girl--" he stopped, staring at me dumbly, as
the vision of Mary Virginia rose before him.

"She is, indeed, a dear, dear child," said I. His words stung me
somewhat, for once upon a time, I myself would have resented that such
as he should have breathed the same air with Mary Virginia.

"I'd almost think I'd dreamed her," said he, thoughtfully, "that is,
if I was good enough to have dreams like that," he added hastily, with
his first touch of shame. "I've seen 'em from the Battery up, and some
of 'em was sure-enough queens, but I didn't know they came like this
one. She's bran-new to me, parson. Say, you just show me what she
wants me to help you with, and I'll do it. She seems to think I can,
and it oughtn't to be any harder than opening a time-vault, ought it?"

"No," said I gravely, "I shouldn't think it would be. Though I never
opened a time-vault, you understand, and I hope and pray you'll never
touch one again, either. I'd rather you wouldn't even refer to it,
please. It makes me feel, rather--well, let's say _particeps
criminis_."

"I suppose that's the polite for punching you in the wind," said he,
just as gravely. "And I didn't think you'd ever monkeyed with a vault;
why, you couldn't, not if you was to try till Gabriel did his little
turn in the morning--not unless you'd been caught when you were softer
and put wise. Man, it's a bigger job than you think, and you've got to
have the know-how and the nerve before you can put it over. But
there--I'll keep it dark, seeing you want me to." He stretched out his
hands, regarding them speculatively. "They _are_ classy mitts," he
remarked impersonally. "Yep, seemed like they were just naturally made
to--do what they did. They were built for fine work." At that his jaw
snapped; a spasm twitched his face; it darkened.

"The work little Miss Eustis suggested for you," I insinuated hastily,
"is what very many people consider very fine work indeed. About one in
a thousand can do it properly."

"Lead me to it," said he wearily, and without enthusiasm, "and turn me
loose. I'll do what I can, to please her. At least, until I can make a
getaway for keeps."

CHAPTER V

ENTER KERRY

When I was first seen prowling along the roads and about the fields
stalking butterflies and diurnal moths with the caution of a red
Indian on the warpath and the stealth of a tiger in the jungle; when
mystified folk met me at night, a lantern suspended from my neck