e for a Third
avenue melodrama.

Mr. Gordon calmed 'em down though after a bit, and then I got a chance.
I was a little riled by that time, I guess. I offered to tie pillows on
both hands and take 'em all three at once, kickin' allowed.

"Oh, come, Shorty," says Mr. Gordon. "These gentlemen have been a little
hasty. They don't understand, and they're great friends of Sir Peter.
This is the British Ambassador, Lord Winchester, and these are his two
secretaries. Now, what about this shinny?"

"It was a stem-winder," says I. "Sir Peter was off side most of the
time; but I don't carry no grouch for that."

Then I told 'em how I'd done it to keep him off the tracks, and how he
got so warmed up he couldn't stop until he ran out of steam. They were
polite enough after that. We shook hands all round, and I went in and
resurrected Danvers, and they got Sir Peter fixed up so that he was fit
to go in a cab, and the whole bunch clears out.

In about an hour Mr. Gordon comes back. He wears one of the
won't-come-off kind, and steps like he was feelin' good all over.
"Professor," says he, "you needn't be surprised at getting a medal of
honor from the British Government. You seem to have cured Sir Peter of
the bucket habit."

"We're quits, then," says I. "He's cured me of wanting to play shinny.
Say, did you find out who the old snoozer was, anyway?"

"The old snoozer," says he, "is the crack financial expert of England,
and a big gun generally. He'd been over here looking into our railroads,
and when he gets back he's to make a report that will be accepted as law
and gospel in every capital of Europe. It was while he was working on
that job that his brain took a vacation; and it was your shinny game,
the doctors say, that saved him from the insane asylum. You seem to have
brought him back to his senses."

"He's welcome," says I; "but I wish the British Government would ante up
a bottle of spavin-cure. Look at that shin."

"We'll make 'em pay for that shin," says he, with a kind of
it's-coming-to-us grin. "And by the way, Shorty; those few after-dinner
remarks that Sir Peter made about his report--you could forget about
hearing 'em, couldn't you?"

"I can forget everything but the bucket," says I.

"Good," says Mr. Gordon. "It--it's a private matter for a while."

We took a hansom ride around town until the noon limited was ready to
pull out. Never saw a car ride do a man so much good as that one back to
New York seemed