quire what
cash I have. If your client is at all reasonable----"

"He isn't," said Sharrow. "He's a Connecticut Yankee."

For a moment Angelo Puma seemed crestfallen, then his brilliant smile
flashed from every perfect tooth:

"That is very bad for me," he said, buttoning-his showy overcoat.
"Pardon me; I waste your time--" pulling on his gloves. "However, if
your client should ever care to change his mind----"

"One moment," said Sharrow, whose time Mr. Puma had indeed wasted at
intervals during the past year, and who heartily desired to be rid of
property and client: "Suppose you deal directly with the owner. We are
not particularly anxious to carry the property; it's a little out of
our sphere. Suppose I put you in direct communication with the
owner."

"Delighted," said Puma, flashing his smile and bowing from the waist;
and perfectly aware that his badgering had bored this gentleman to the
limit.

"I'll write out his address for you," said Sharrow, "--one moment,
please----"

Angelo Puma waited, his glossy hat in one hand, his silver-headed
stick and folded suede gloves in the other.

Like darkly brilliant searchlights his magnificent eyes swept the
offices of Sharrow & Co.; at a glance he appraised the self-conscious
typists, surmised possibilities in a blond one; then, as a woman
entered from the street, he rested his gaze upon her. And he kept it
there.

Even when Sharrow came out of his private office with the slip of
paper, Angelo Puma's eyes still remained fastened upon the young girl
who had spoken to a clerk and then seated herself in a chair beside
the desk of James Shotwell, Jr.

"The man's name," repeated Sharrow patiently, "is Elmer Skidder. His
address is Shadow Hill, Connecticut."

Puma turned to him as though confused, thanked him effusively, took
the slip of paper, pulled on his gloves in a preoccupied way, and very
slowly walked toward the street door, his eyes fixed on the girl who
was now in animated conversation with young Shotwell.

As he passed her she was laughing at something the young man had just
said, and Puma deliberately turned and looked at her again--looked her
full in the face.

She was aware of him and of his bold scrutiny, of course--noticed his
brilliant eyes, no doubt--but paid no heed to him--was otherwise
preoccupied with this young man beside her, whom she had neither seen
nor thought about since the day she had landed in New York from the
rusty little Danis