selves. My friend found her with a man
and took her from him."

"I hope you did up Jerry right!" cried Annie, a vindictive flash in her
dark eyes.

"I haven't called him up this mo'nin' to see how he's feelin'," said
Clay whimsically. "Miss Annie, we're worried some about you. Mrs.
Muldoon is right anxious for us to get you to come and stay awhile with
her. She's honin' to have a li'l' girl to mother. Don't you reckon
you can go?"

"I--I wish yuh'd come, Annie," blurted out Tim, looking down his nose.

Tears brimmed in Annie's eyes. To Clay it seemed there was something
hungry in the look the girl gave Muldoon. She did not want his pity
alone. She would not have their hospitality if they were giving it to
a girl they despised and wanted to reform.

"I'm an alley cat you're offerin' to take in and feed, Tim Muldoon,"
she charged suspiciously.

"Yuh're the girl--my mother loves." He choked on the impulsive avowal
he had almost made and finished the sentence awkwardly. It was
impossible for him to escape the natural male instinct to keep his
feelings out of words.

The girl's face softened. Inside, she was a river of tenderness
flowing toward the Irishman. "I'll go to your mother, Tim, if she
really wants me," she cried almost in a murmur.

"You're shoutin' now, Miss Annie," said Clay, smiling. "She sure wants
you. I'll hit the trail to have that talk with Jim Collins."

He found "Slim" Jim at his stand. That flashily dressed young crook
eyed him with a dogged and wary defiance. He had just come from a call
at the bedside of Jerry Durand and he felt a healthy respect for the
man who could do what this light-stepping young fellow had done to the
champion rough-houser of New York. The story Jerry had told was of an
assault from behind with a club, but this Collins did not accept at
par. There were too many bruises on his sides and cuts on his face to
be accounted for in any way except by a hard toe-to-toe fight.

"Mo'nin', Mr. Collins. I left you in a hurry last night and forgot to
pay my bill. What's the damage?" asked Clay in his gently ironic drawl.

"Slim" Jim growled something the meaning of which was drowned in an
oath.

"You say it was a free ride? Much obliged. That's sure fair enough,"
Clay went on easily. "Well, I didn't come to talk to you about that.
I've got other business with you this mo'nin'."

The chauffeur looked at him sullenly and silently.

"Suppose we get inside