new two-dollar one that could open and shut its
eyes! 'It's for Daddums,' I says at last, and she gives up. There! Now
we're gettin' to it. No wonder Arabella was some plump!"

"Well, of all places!" gasps out Mrs. Murtha, and, believe me, it don't
take her long to leave Arabella flat as a pancake. "But how did he
manage to----"

"It was the night before," says I. "You didn't miss the roll until the
next afternoon. And he ain't a reg'lar crook, you know. It was a case of
bein' up against it,--sickness, and wantin' to get away somewhere with
the kid. Honest, he don't strike me as such a bad lot: only a little
limber in the backbone. Better count it."

"All there," she announces after runnin' through the bunch. "And maybe
I'm not tickled to get it back! Catch me forgetting to lock that safe
again! But I thought no one knew. Allston must have seen me moving the
picture and guessed. Well, I'm not sore. Poor devil! I'll call up the
District Attorney's office right away. He gets those tickets to
Australia, too. Leave that to me."

Yep! Mrs. Connie wa'n't chuckin' any bluff. She went down herself and
had the indictment ditched.

I didn't mean to stage any heart-throb piece, either; but it just
happens that yesterday, when we pulls off the final act, Vee tells me
that Helma is in the libr'y, playin' nurse and hairdresser to Aunty's
chief pet, a big orange Persian that she calls Prince Hal. That's how
Helma had won out with Aunty, you know, by makin' friends with the cat.

"You tell her," says Vee.

So I steps in quiet where the youngster is busy with the comb and brush.
"Someone special to see Miss Helma," says I.

"To see me?" says she, droppin' pussy and gazin' at the door. "Why, who
can---- O-o-o-o-o! Daddums! Daddums!"

And as they rush to a fond clinch in one room something happens to me in
the other. Uh-huh! I'm caught around the neck quick, and something soft
and sweet hits me on the right cheek, and the next minute I'm bein'
pushed away just as sudden.

"No, no!" says Vee. "That's enough. You're a dear, all the same. Of
course I knew he didn't take it; but how in the world did you ever make
them let him go?"

"Cinch!" says I. "I saw through the sawdust, and they didn't."

I couldn't let on, though, about that inside tip I got from Arabella.

CHAPTER X

THEN ALONG CAME SUKEY

It looked like it was Kick-in Day, or something like that; for here was
Nutt Hamilton, a sporty young plute friend of Mr