ess, it's your nerve that
you've got to hire money on--and your clothes. You do what I tell you.
Come to my tailor's in the morning.'

"Well, to cut a long story short, I did it. I rigged up to beat that
bank president himself. When he saw me in about two hundred dollars'
worth of good clothes he considered the case again and recommended the
loan to his board. 'You put your facts much more lucidly to-day, Mr.
Tapp,' is the way he expressed himself. But take it from me, Lawford,
it was my clothes that made the impression.

"So!" ruminated Mr. Tapp, "that is one thing Bill Johnson did for me.
And later, as you know, he came into the candy business with me and his
money helped make I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King. Lawford, Bill is
like a brother to me. His girl, Dorothy, is one of the nicest girls
who ever stepped in a slipper."

"Dorothy Johnson is a really sweet girl, dad," Lawford agreed. "I like
her."

"There!" ejaculated I. Tapp. "You let that liking become something
stronger. Dorothy's just the girl for you to marry."

"_What_?" gasped the skipper of the _Merry Andrew_, almost losing his
grip on the steering wheel.

"You get my meaning," said his father, scowling. "I've always meant
you should marry Bill's daughter. I had your mother write her last
night inviting her down here. Of course, your mother and the girls
think Bill Johnson's folks are too plain. But I'm boss once in a while
in my own house."

"And you call mother a matchmaker!"

"I know what I want and I'm going to get it," said I. Tapp doggedly.
"Dorothy is the girl for you. Don't you get entangled with anybody
else. Not a penny of my money will you ever handle if you don't do as
I say, young man!"

"You needn't holler till you're hit, dad," Lawford said, trying to
speak carelessly.

"Oh! _I_ sha'n't holler," snarled the Taffy King. "I warn you. One
such play as that and I'm through with you. I'm willing to support an
idle, ne'er-do-well; but he sha'n't saddle himself with one of those
theatrical creatures and bring scandal upon the family. Do you know
what I was doing when I was your age? I had a booth at 'Gansett, two
at Newport, a big one at Atlantic City, and was beginning to branch
out. I worked like a dog, too."

"That's why I think I don't have to work, dad," said Lawford coolly.

CHAPTER IX

SUSPICION HOVERS

Betty Gallup, clothed as usual in her man's hat and worn pea-coat, but
likewise on this o