desk, thus testifying
to her sure standing in the establishment, her tightly drawn skirt
displaying an attractive contour. For a fleeting moment--hating Latisan
so venomously--Craig rather envied Latisan his prospects as a victim.

Miss Elsham produced a silver cigarette case, lighted up, and exhaled
twin streams of smoke from a shapely nose. "Shoot!" she counseled.

Mern, after his slow fashion, fumbled with the sheets of Miss Kennard's
manuscript.

Miss Elsham thriftily utilized the moments allowed her by Mern's
hesitation. She always tried to impress a client favorably. "I don't
presume to pick and choose when it comes to cases," she informed Craig.
"I'm an All-for-the-good-cause Anne! But I hope--I'm allowed to hope, I
suppose--I do hope that my next one is going to remember some of the
lessons he learned at mother's knee. The last one had forgotten
everything. I was dragged through cafes till at the present time a
red-shaded table lamp and a menu card make me want to bite holes in any
man with a napkin over his arm. I've danced to jazz and listened to
cabaret----"

Mern was trying to say something, but she rattled on: "And that flask on
his hip--he must have done all his breathing while he was asleep; he
never allowed time enough between drinks while he was awake."

"The next one is different," stated Mern.

"Much obliged! But of course it's cafes again and----"

Mern sliced off her complaints, chopping his flat hand to and fro in
the air. "Nothing to it, sis! It's a tall-timber job, this time."

"In the woods--the real woods," supplemented Craig.

"Great!" indorsed Miss Elsham, accustomed to meeting all phases of
action with agility. "I've just seen a movie with that kind of a girl in
it. Leggings and knicks. I can see myself. Great!"

Director Craig surveyed her and nodded approvingly.

"We'll decide on what part you'll play before we measure you for a rig,"
objected the chief, with his official caution. "Listen to the size-up of
your man." He began to read from Miss Kennard's manuscript. "'Ward
Latisan. Young woodsman. Has lived and worked among rough men and has no
particular amount of moral stamina, a fact shown by his desertion of his
father in time of need in order to indulge in orgies in the city.'"

"Oh, it's to go and set my hook and fish him out of the woods, and then
he and I lean on our elbows across from each other--the cafes some
more," said Miss Elsham, pouting.

Mern suspended, for