ike you, Mr.
Wisenblum, in spite of the fact that I ought to hate you."

"Hate me? But why?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because--I'm rather nice; I dance well."

"You are, and you do. You'd be a perfect dear if you'd only mind your
own business. Buddy is of age, and you and I will get along like ham
and eggs if you'll remember that."

CHAPTER XXI

"Why the SOS?" Mallow voiced this question as he entered Gray's hotel
room early the following evening.

"I'm in a predicament and I hope you can help me," the latter
explained. "I'm trying to remember something and I can't. I have a cold
spot in my head."

Mallow deposited his bag with a sigh of relief. "Glad it's no worse.
Anybody can cure a cold in the head."

"Sit down and light up while I tell you about it." In a few sentences
Gray made known the story of Ozark Briskow's infatuation, and the
reason for his own interest therein. "The woman is of the common
'get-rich-quick' variety," he concluded, "and she won't do."

"She didn't pull the family estate and her father's slaves and the
orange grove on you, did she?"

"Oh no. She used that on Buddy and he believes it implicitly--so
implicitly that she warned me to keep off the track. She showed her
teeth, in a nice way. I've seen her somewhere; in some place where I
should not have been. But where? It must have been in this country,
too--not abroad--or I'd remember her."

"Maybe I haven't been as wild as you, Governor. This is a big country
and I've missed a lot of disreputable joints."

The former speaker smiled. "You have trained yourself to remember
faces, Mallow. Your researches--scientific researches, my dear
Professor--have led you into quarters which I have never explored. I
must identify this venturesome little gold digger without delay, for
Buddy yearns to make her all his; matrimony is becoming the one object
of his life."

"Why not let the poor carp have her? It's tough enough for a dame to
get by since prohibition. I don't see how they make it, with everybody
sober. Chances are she'd get the worst of the swap, at that."

"Not unlikely, but that is neither here nor there. Understand me, I'm
no seraph; I pose as no model of rectitude, and, unfortunately for my
peace of mind, Miss Montague is a really likable young person. But
Buddy has a mother and a sister, and they hold me responsible for him.
We three are dining downstairs in an hour; perhaps you could look in on
us?"

"Sure. I'll give her th