hat pulled
down over all that black hair, and she was buttoning a shabby
jacket. There was a way out by the alley; he well knew it. Nor was
he anxious of appearing before either a police lieutenant or a
magistrate for creating a disturbance in the place.

"Run along. I'll be right behind you," he whispered.

The policeman was some distance, and several tables away. Tunis
looked to see if all was clear. The girl was just passing through
the swinging door into the kitchen. Tunis stepped back, turned
suddenly, while the restaurant proprietor was making ready to
address the policeman, and leaped for the rear exit.

"There he goes!" squealed the patron who had been the cause of the
trouble.

But nobody stopped Tunis Latham. At a flash, when he got into the
kitchen, he saw the girl opening the outer door. The way was clear.
He crossed the room in several quick strides and caught up with her.
The startled chef and his assistants merely stared.

The alley was empty, but they walked swiftly away from the square.
The arc lamp on the corner which they approached sputtered
continuously, like soda water bubbling out of a bottle. He looked
down at her curiously in the flickering illumination from this lamp
and found the girl looking up at him just as curiously.

"That was an unwise thing to do. You might have been arrested," she
said, ever so gently. Then she added: "And it has cost me my job."

"That is the only thing that worries me," he rejoined promptly.

"You need not mind, sir. I really am not sorry. I could not have
stood it much longer. And Mr. Sellers paid yesterday."

"So they don't owe you much on account, then," Tunis said soberly.
"I came away without paying for my dinner. I'll pay the worth of my
check to you; that'll help some."

For the first time she laughed. Once he had sat all afternoon in a
gully back of Big Wreck Cove in the pine woods and listened to the
cheerful gurgle of a spring bubbling from under a stone. That
silvery chuckle was repeated in this girl's laugh With all her
timidity and shyness, she was naturally a cheerful body. That laugh
was quite involuntary.

"I think I may be able to get along," she said, with that quiet tone
of finality which Tunis felt would keep the boldest man at a
distance. "It is difficult, however, to get a position without
references."

"I'll go back and wring one out of him--when the cop has gone,"
grinned Tunis.

"I don't think a reference from Mr. Sellers w