erhaps you'd better," says Gerty.

"Yes," says I, "some of them careless waiters might fall on one of 'em."

With that Pinckney starts after 'em, tall hat, cane, and all. The kids
see him, and take it that he's joined the game.

"Oh, here's Uncle Pinckney!" they shouts. "You're it, Uncle Pinckney!"
and off they goes.

That sets everybody roarin'--except Pinckney. He turns a nice shade of
red, and gives it up. I guess they'd put the place all to the bad, if
Miss Gerty hadn't stood up smilin' and held her hands out to them.
They come to her like she'd pulled a string, and in a minute it was all
over.

"Pinckney," says I, "you want to rehearse this uncle act some before
you spring it on the public again."

"I wish I could get at that letter and find out how long this is going
to last," says he, sighin' and moppin' his noble brow.

But if Pinckney was shy on time for letter readin' before, he had less
of it now. The three of us put in the afternoon lookin' after that
pair of kids, and we was all busy at that. Twice Miss Gerty started to
break away and go for a train; but both times Pinckney sent me to call
her back. Soon's she got on the scene everything was lovely.

Pinckney had picked out a suite of rooms at the Waldorf, and he thought
as soon as he could get hold of a governess and a maid his troubles
would be over. But it wa'n't so easy to pick up a pair of twin
trainers. Three or four sets shows up; but when they starts to ask
questions about who the twins belongs to, and who Pinckney was, and
where Miss Gerty comes in, and what was I doin' there they gets a touch
of pneumonia in the feet.

"I ain't casting any insinuations," says one; "but I never have been
mixed up in a kidnapping case before, and I guess I won't begin now."

"The sassy thing!" says I, as she bangs the door.

Pinckney looks stunned; but Miss Gerty only laughs.

"Perhaps you'd better let me go out and find some one," says she. "And
maybe I'll stay over for a day."

While she was gone Pinckney gets me to take a note up to his man,
tellin' him to overhaul the mail and send all the London letters down.
That took me less'n an hour, but when I gets back to the hotel I finds
Pinckney with furrows in his brow, tryin' to make things right with the
manager. He'd only left the twins locked up in the rooms for ten
minutes or so, while he goes down for some cigarettes and the afternoon
papers; but before he gets back they've rung up ever