n. "I had no idea how
great and important a man was escorting me when I came down this hill!
But Mr. Morgan has enlightened me."

With that she discovered that she could still tease him, almost as
easily as she had teased the sturdy small boy of the uncouth shoes and
napping trousers.

"Joe is necessarily prejudiced in his opinion," he argued, "and
therefore shouldn't be taken too seriously."

"He told me that you had one regrettable characteristic, however," the
girl went on. "He lamented your strength at the ancient and honorable
pastime of stud-poker! And he also bewails your taste in literature.
Why, he tells me that you are indicted to Dickens and Dumas--he didn't
pronounce it that way, either--and even fall back upon Shakespeare, in
dark and dour hours. No, I am positive that Mr. Morgan docs not
approve of such fiction. He confided to me that he finds more
entertainment, of a winter's night, in perusing a Sears-Roebuck or a
Montgomery-Ward catalogue. And--and do you know what I admitted to
him? No? Well, I told him that some of the happiest moments of my
life had been spent in just such fashion. I've always thought they
were fascinating!"

She badgered him on the way back up the hill that morning, but when
they paused for a moment at the edge of the close-cropped lawn which
rolled back to the stucco and timber house facing the river, she
abandoned her facetiousness.

"Why should there be any--any element of personal danger in this work
you are doing, Mr. O'Mara?" she asked. "And did I do wrong in
mentioning to Mr. Morgan how that man came out of that--place, and
glared so at you?"

His rejoinder should have been very reassuring.

"So Joe has been hinting at that mystery stuff again, has he? After
listening to him one is almost compelled to believe that I run daily a
veritable gauntlet of nameless perils."

Barbara stood, small fists buried in her sweater pockets, studying his
smile of amusement.

"I shouldn't like to believe so," her voice was faintly diffident.
"And you--you haven't accepted my invitation for Friday. May I expect
you? I didn't tell you, but Archie--Archibald Wickersham--will be
there, as well as Garry. So--so you won't be entirely unacquainted."

And then, at those words, his face changed. All in one fleet second,
in spite of the whole morning's quick intimacy of mood and the spirit
of companionship which to her had seemed a delightfully new yet
time-tried thing, Barb