he writes a new program.
She don't stand for springin' any quiet weddin's on her set. She plans
a big party, where the engagement bulletin is to be flashed on the
screen reg'lar and proper, so's folks can be orderin' their dresses and
weddin' presents.

Ferdy balks some at the thought of bein' dragged to the centre of the
stage; but he grits his teeth and tells 'em that for this once they can
go as far as they like. He even agrees to leave home for a week and
mix it at a big house party, just to get himself broke in to meetin'
strangers.

Up to within two days of the engagement stunt he was behavin' lovely;
and the next thing they knows, just when he should be gettin' ready to
show up at Newport, he can't be found. It has all the looks of his
leavin' his clothes on the bank and jumpin' the night freight. Course,
the Dobsons ain't sayin' a word to Alicia's folks yet. They gets their
friends together to organise a still hunt for Ferdy; and the Bishop
bein' one of the inside circle, he's sent out as head scout.

"And I am at my wits' ends," says he. "No one has seen him in Newport,
and I can't find him at any of his clubs here."

"How about the Fifth-ave. mausoleum?" says I.

"His man is there," says the Bishop; "but he seems unable to give me
any information."

"Does, eh?" says I. "Well, you take it from me that if anyone's got a
line on Ferdy, it's that clam faced Kupps of his. He's been trained so
fine in the silence business that he hardly dares open his mouth when
he eats. Go up there and put him through the wringer."

"Do what?" says the Bishop.

"Give him the headquarters quiz," says I. "Tell him you come straight
from mother and sisters, and that Ferdy's got to be found."

"I hardly feel equal to doing just that," says the Bishop in his mild
way. "Now if you could only----"

"Why, sure!" says I. "It'd do me good to take a whirl out of that
Englishman. I'll make him give up!"

He's a bird though, that Kupps. I hadn't talked with him two minutes
before I would have bet my pile he knew all about where Ferdy was
roostin' and what he was up to; but when it come to draggin' out the
details, you might just as well have been tryin' to pry up a pavin'
stone with a fountain pen. Was Ferdy in town, or out of town, and when
would he be back? Kupps couldn't say. He wouldn't even tell how long
it was since he had seen Ferdy last. And say, you know how pig headed
one of them hen brained Cockneys ca