talizing
Rose.

Officer 666 choked with emotion.

"Will ye name the day, d-d-d-ar"----

He stopped and looked round about him fearfully, for Sergeant McGinnis
was due on his rounds and Sergeant McGinnis, though married, had an
eye like a hawk for a pretty girl and a tongue like an adder for a
patrolman caught sparking.

Rose's eyes flashed and her lips drew taut. She started forward, but
turned her head to face Phelan as she walked away.

"I'll give you an answer, Michael," she said in parting, "when ye may
set up your own home for your own"----

That was all Phelan heard and possibly all that the young woman
uttered, for just then Master Croesus set up a bawl that was most
common and vulgar in its utter lack of restraint. There could be no
more to the interview that day with young Master Croesus in such
vociferous mood, so Officer 666 turned away with a heaving sigh and
plodded dolefully along on his beat.

CHAPTER XVII.

TRAVERS GLADWIN IS CONSIDERABLY JARRED.

Taking time out to sense the bruised condition of your heart isn't a
whole lot different from taking time out to recover from a jolt
received in the prize ring. Having released that impassioned sentence,
"I hope you are going to like his best friend just a little!" young
Mr. Gladwin felt a trifle groggy.

Until he had spoken he hadn't realized just how badly his cardiac
equipment was being shot to pieces by the naked god's ruthless
archery.

The fact that the case should have appeared hopeless only fanned the
flame of his ardor. He had looked into the depths of two vividly blue
eyes and there read his destiny. So he told himself fiercely;
whereupon, in the Rooseveltian phrase, he cast his hat into the ring.

He cared no more for obstacles than a runaway horse. His very boredom
of the past few years had stored up vast reserves of energy within
him, waiting only for that psychological thrill to light the fuse.

As Helen Burton turned from him with the uncomfortable feeling of one
who has received a vague danger signal he paused only a moment before
he again strode to her side. He was about to speak when she took the
lead from him and, looking up at one of the masterpieces on the wall,
said:

"Oh, this is his wonderful collection of paintings! He told me all
about them."

It was what the gentlemen pugilists would call a cross-counter
impinging upon the supersensitive maxillary muscles. It certainly
jarred the owner of that wonderful c