ly abashed Purt.

"Oh, hold me, somebody!" cried Lance. "And he's had those cigarettes for
three months, I know!"

"Purt, you'll be the death of us yet," declared Chet Belding, wiping his
eyes.

"I--I couldn't get used to the taste of them in my mouth," confessed the
dude.

"You're more fun than a box of monkeys!" declared Lance.

"That reminds me, girls," said Chet, suddenly, and picking up the checks
to pay the bill before Purt Sweet could get around to it. "There's an
enormously funny monkey over here. Trained to a hair. I saw him over in
Centerport when his owner brought him through----"

"I saw that monkey--with a piano organ. And such a nice looking Italian
with it," declared Laura.

"Look out, Lance," whispered Chet, grinning, "she likes the romantic and
dark complexioned style in heroes. Get some walnut stain and a black
wig."

"Why, he was playing in the streets, over in town," said Jess.

"That was just to advertise his act before the season opened," declared
Chet. "So he told me."

"All right," Laura said. "The boat isn't due yet, so we might as well
remain with you boys until it comes and so keep you out of mischief."

"But I really look so badly----" began Purt.

"Never mind. You won't meet the Maline girls here," snapped Jess, as
though she were still very angry with him.

"Come on, Purt--be a sport," whispered Lance, with a wicked grin. "It
won't cost you anything except what you give to the monkey--and that's a
private affair between you and the monk you know."

It was true that Sweet was a "tight-wad," as the boys expressed it. He
would spend any amount of money on himself, or to make a show; but
liberality was not one of his virtues.

The young folks were not long in finding the booth, across which was
painted a straggling sign reading:

TONY ALLEGRETTO AND HIS
PERFORMING MONKEY

"Which is the 'monk'?" demanded Lance, in a whisper, when they saw two
very gaily dressed figures on the tiny platform before the booth.

The Italian himself was a short, agile young man, but not ill-looking.
He had splendid teeth, and they showed white and even behind his smile,
for his face was dusky and his mustache as black as jet, as was his
hair. He was dressed in a gay, if soiled, Neapolitan costume, and the
monkey was dressed in an imitation of his master's get-up. It was a
large monkey, with a long tail and a solemn face, not at all the
ordinary kind of monkey that appears with organ