when he recollected that The Hornet
owed him fifteen dollars for "The Peri and the Pearl," he decided
forthwith to go and collect it. But The Hornet was run by a set of clean-
shaven, strapping young men, frank buccaneers who robbed everything and
everybody, not excepting one another. After some breakage of the office
furniture, the editor (an ex-college athlete), ably assisted by the
business manager, an advertising agent, and the porter, succeeded in
removing Martin from the office and in accelerating, by initial impulse,
his descent of the first flight of stairs.

"Come again, Mr. Eden; glad to see you any time," they laughed down at
him from the landing above.

Martin grinned as he picked himself up.

"Phew!" he murmured back. "The Transcontinental crowd were nanny-goats,
but you fellows are a lot of prize-fighters."

More laughter greeted this.

"I must say, Mr. Eden," the editor of The Hornet called down, "that for a
poet you can go some yourself. Where did you learn that right cross--if
I may ask?"

"Where you learned that half-Nelson," Martin answered. "Anyway, you're
going to have a black eye."

"I hope your neck doesn't stiffen up," the editor wished solicitously:
"What do you say we all go out and have a drink on it--not the neck, of
course, but the little rough-house?"

"I'll go you if I lose," Martin accepted.

And robbers and robbed drank together, amicably agreeing that the battle
was to the strong, and that the fifteen dollars for "The Peri and the
Pearl" belonged by right to The Hornet's editorial staff.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Arthur remained at the gate while Ruth climbed Maria's front steps. She
heard the rapid click of the type-writer, and when Martin let her in,
found him on the last page of a manuscript. She had come to make certain
whether or not he would be at their table for Thanksgiving dinner; but
before she could broach the subject Martin plunged into the one with
which he was full.

"Here, let me read you this," he cried, separating the carbon copies and
running the pages of manuscript into shape. "It's my latest, and
different from anything I've done. It is so altogether different that I
am almost afraid of it, and yet I've a sneaking idea it is good. You be
judge. It's an Hawaiian story. I've called it 'Wiki-wiki.'"

His face was bright with the creative glow, though she shivered in the
cold room and had been struck by the coldness of his hands at greeting.
S