w.... So you're
fixing to locate in New York, eh?"

"I think so."

"Live in a flat?"

"I don't know."

"What are you going to do in New York?" he asked curiously.

"I'm sure I don't know. There'll be plenty to do, I suppose."

"You bet," he said, blinking rapidly, "there's always something doing
in that little old town." He slapped his knee: "Palla," he said, "I'm
thinking of going into the movie business."

"Really?"

"Yes, I'm considering it. Slovaks and bum farms are played out.
There's no money in Shadow Hill--or if there is, it's locked up--or
the income tax has paralysed it. No, I'm through. There's nothing
doing in land; no commissions. And I'm considering a quick getaway."

"Where do you expect to go?"

"Say, Palla, when you kiss your old home good-bye, there's only one
place to go. Get me?"

"New York?" she inquired, amused.

"That's me! There's a guy down there I used to correspond with--a
feller named Puma--Angelo Puma--not a regular wop, as you might say,
but there's some wop in him, judging by his map--or Mex--or kike,
maybe--or something. Anyway, he's in the moving picture business--The
Ultra-Fillum Company. I guess there's a mint o' money in fillums."

She nodded, a trifle bored.

"I got a chance to go in with Angelo Puma," he said, snapping his
eyes.

"Really?"

"You know, Palla, I've made a little money, too, since you been over
there living with the Queen of Russia."

"I'm very glad, Blinky."

"Oh, it ain't much. And," he added shrewdly, "it ain't so paltry,
neither. Thank the Lord, I made hay while the Slovaks lasted.... So,"
he added, getting up from his chair, "maybe I'll see you down there in
New York, some day----"

He hesitated, his blinking eyes redly intent on her as she rose to her
slim height.

"Say, Palla."

She looked at him inquiringly.

"Ever thought of the movies?"

"As an investment?"

"Well--that, too. There's big money in it. But I meant--I mean--it
strikes me you'd make a bird of a movie queen."

The suggestion mildly amused her.

"I mean it," he insisted. "Grab it from me, Palla, you've got the
shape, and you got the looks and you got the walk and the ways and the
education. You got something peculiar--like you had been born a rich
swell--I mean you kinda naturally act that way--kinda cocksure of
yourself. Maybe you got it living with that Queen----"

Palla laughed outright.

"So you think because I've seen a queen I ought to know how to act