e she could answer a voice spoke--a
voice which, with intuitive certainty, she associated with the gloved
hand that had helped gather up her note-books--a very crisp, finely
modulated voice.

"That's perfectly outrageous," it said. "The young lady has paid her
fare."

"Did you see her pay it?" demanded the conductor.

"Naturally not," said the voice. "I got on at the last corner. She was
here then. But if she said she did, she did."

It seemed to relieve the conductor to have some one of his own sex to
quarrel with. He delivered a stream of admonition somewhat sulphurously
phrased, to the general effect that any one whose concern the present
affair was not, could, at his option, close his jaw or have his block
knocked off.

Rose hadn't, as yet, looked round at her champion. But she now became
aware that inside a shaggy gray sleeve which hung beside her, there was
a sudden tension of big muscles; the gloved hand that had helped gather
up her note-books, clenched itself into a formidable fist. The thought
of the sort of thud that fist might make against the over-active jaw of
the conductor was pleasant. Still, the thing mustn't be allowed to
happen.

She spoke quickly and decisively. "I won't pay another fare, but of
course you may put me off the car."

"All right," said the conductor.

The girl smiled over the very gingerly way in which he reached out for
her elbow to guide her around the rail and toward the step. Technically,
the action constituted putting her off the car. She heard the crisp
voice once more, this time repeating a number, "twenty-two-naught-five,"
or something like that, just as she splashed down into the two-inch lake
that covered the hollow in the pavement. The bell rang twice, the car
started with a jerk, there was another splash, and a big gray-clad
figure alighted in the lake beside her.

"I've got his number," the crisp voice said triumphantly.

"But," gasped the girl, "but what in the world did you get off the car
for?"

It wasn't raining. It was doing an imitation of Niagara Falls, and the
roar of it almost drowned their voices.

"What did I get off the car for!" he shouted. "Why, I wouldn't have
missed it for anything. It was immense! It's so confounded seldom," he
went on, "that you find anybody with backbone enough to stick up for a
principle ..."

He heard a brief, deep-throated little laugh and pulled up short with a,
"What's the joke?"

"I laughed," she said, "because y