light
Our roadside fire together._

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE WAY OF IT 1

II. A SIGN-POST POINTS TO AN ADVENTURE 12

III. PATSY PLAYS A PART 25

IV. THE OCCUPANT OF A BALMACAAN COAT 39

V. A TINKER POINTS THE ROAD 48

VI. AT DAY'S END 64

VII. THE TINKER PLAYS A PART 85

VIII. WHEN TWO WERE NOT COMPANY 106

IX. PATSY ACQUIRES SOME INFORMATION 121

X. JOSEPH JOURNEYS TO A FAR COUNTRY 139

XI. AND CHANCE STAGES MELODRAMA INSTEAD OF
COMEDY 153

XII. A CHANGE OF NATIONALITY 165

XIII. A MESSAGE AND A MAP 191

XIV. ENTER KING MIDAS 202

XV. ARDEN 216

XVI. THE ROAD BEGINS ALL OVER AGAIN 231

SEVEN MILES TO ARDEN

I

THE WAY OF IT

Patsy O'Connell sat on the edge of her cot in the women's free ward
of the City Hospital. She was pulling on a vagabond pair of gloves
while she mentally gathered up a somewhat doubtful, ragged lot of
prospects and stood them in a row before her for contemplation,
comparison, and a final choice. They strongly resembled the contents
of her steamer trunk, held at a respectable boarding-house in
University Square by a certain Miss Gibb for unpaid board, for these
were made up of a jumble of priceless and worthless belongings,
unmarketable because of their extremes.

She had time a-plenty for contemplation; the staff wished to see her
before she left, and the staff at that moment was consulting at the
other end of the hospital.

Properly speaking, Patsy was Patricia O'Connell, but no one had ever
been known to refer to her in that cold-blooded manner, save on the
programs of the Irish National Plays--and in the City Hospital's
register. What the City Hospital knew of Patsy was precisely what the
American public and press knew, what the National Players knew, what
the world at large knew--precisely what Patricia O'Connell had chosen
to tell--nothing more, nothing less. They had accepted her on her own
scanty terms and believed in her implicitly. There was one thing
und