place myself
either. Do you know I just got kicked by a poll parrot? Let's get away
from here."

"Hold on, Riley, what are you talking about?" growled Bland. "Kicked by
a poll parrot! You're--"

"That's all right, Chief," broke in the now thoroughly cheerful Perry.
"That jackass I shot could probably have told us all about it. I
positively know the beast could talk."

"Humph!" snorted Bland, "Well, if a donkey can talk, and a bull can
bite, and a hound can hook, why shouldn't a parrot--Judas Priest, I'm
getting as crazy as the rest of you! Hurry up and get Kell downstairs so
we can see who he is. There I go again! Oh, go lie down, Riley."

"But look, Bland, look!" Riley was pointing a demoralized finger at a
cage in the corner. He tugged frantically at Bland's coat sleeve. "See
what's in there, won't you? I--well, I did find some liquor in your car,
and Miss Manion made me take some. I--I didn't know it would do this to
me. Look in there; please, Mr. Bland!"

* * * * *

Bland gave Riley a dark look, but nevertheless he reached for O'Hara's
flashlight. In the cage two yellow eyes blinked sleepily out at him.
Perry began to laugh.

"Why, there's nothing in there but a cat. Skip and I heard it purring
when we first came in here this afternoon. Guess Riley--"

"Great God, Jimmie, give me your gun!" Hard Boiled Bland for the moment
failed to merit his sobriquet. The torch in his hand threw a trembling
beam full into the cage. "It's a snake! And--there! It's doing it
again!"

A snake it was, indubitably, a huge black specimen with bright yellow
stripes. Bland's frenzied yell seemed not to have excited it at all, for
now the sleek fellow had arched its body neatly and was calmly licking
its sides with a long forked tongue. After a moment it halted the
operation long enough to rub its jaw against a bar of its cage, and gave
vent to a sociable mew!

Even this could not dash the spirits of Horace Perry. He laughed
delightedly again as he laid Bland by the arm.

"That creature is perfectly harmless, Chief," he told the editor.
"Somewhere I suppose there's a mighty dangerous kitty cat at large, but
there's no sense in taking it out on this poor reptile. Let's live and
let live."

With a show of reluctance Bland returned Jimmie's automatic, then strode
over to where lay the form of Kell. Perry and O'Hara lingered by the
cage long enough to arrange a plan to let the snake out doors as so