it
may have lacked in abandon. The outlaw leader looked on, smiling a
smile intended to represent careless contempt, but in reality he was
unpleasantly surprised. A fancy dance by Georgie Bassett and Baby
Rennsdale was customary at every party attended by members of the
Friday Afternoon Dancing Class; but Marjorie and Carlie Chitten were new
performers, and Penrod had not heard that they had learned to dance "Les
Papillons" together. He was the further embittered.

Carlie made a false step, recovering himself with some difficulty,
whereupon a loud, jeering squawk of laughter was heard from the
insurgent cluster, which had been awed to temporary quiet but still
maintained its base in the drawing-room doorway. There was a general
"SH!" followed by a shocked whispering, as well as a general turning of
eyes toward Penrod. But it was not Penrod who had laughed, though no
one would have credited him with an alibi. The laughter came from two
throats that breathed as one with such perfect simultaneousness that
only one was credited with the disturbance. These two throats belonged
respectively to Samuel Williams and Maurice Levy, who were standing in a
strikingly Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern attitude.

"He got me with his ole tin-box needle, too," Maurice muttered to Sam.
"He was goin' to do it to Marjorie, and I told her to look out, and he
says, 'Here, YOU take it!' all of a sudden, and he stuck it in my hand
so quick I never thought. And then, BIM! his ole needle shot out and
perty near went through my thumb-bone or sumpthing. He'll be sorry
before this day's over!"

"Well," said Sam darkly, "he's goin' to be sorry he stuck ME, anyway!"
Neither Sam nor Maurice had even the vaguest plan for causing the
desired regret in the breast of Master Chitten; but both derived a
little consolation from these prophecies. And they, too, had aligned
themselves with the insurgents. Their motives were personal--Carlie
Chitten had wronged both of them, and Carlie was conspicuously in high
favour with the Authorities. Naturally Sam and Maurice were against the
Authorities.

"Les Papillons" came to a conclusion. Carlie and Georgie bowed; Marjorie
Jones and Baby Rennsdale curtesied, and there was loud applause. In
fact, the demonstration became so uproarious that some measure of it was
open to suspicion, especially as hisses of reptilian venomousness were
commingled with it, and also a hoarse but vociferous repetition of
the dastard words,