meringue; not
me."

He held out the check for correction belligerently.

"You ordered apple-meringue, sir, and I brought it. You ate it. The
check is correct."

Low and timid as the voice was, gently as the words were spoken,
Tunis sensed an undercurrent of firmness and determination in the
girl's character that he had not before suspected.

"Say, you don't put nothing like that over on me!" exclaimed the man
loudly.

Tunis moved in his chair. He saw the black-haired man at the front
of the restaurant swing about to face down the room. He had heard
this unseemly disturbance.

"I will call the manager."

"And so will I--I'll call him good!" sneered the patron. "He knows
that you crooks in here over-charge. He puts you up to it. That's
why he hires jailbirds and--"

Tunis had got up, pushed back his chair with his foot, and as the
girl uttered a horrified gasp at the rough speech, he seized the
man. His grip on the back of the fellow's coat between his shoulders
brought a startled grunt from lips parted to continue his
blackguardism.

"Hey! What d'ye mean?" roared the fellow, as Tunis twisted him into
the aisle.

"You dog!" said the captain of the _Seamew_ in a low voice. "Down on
your knees and ask the lady's pardon for that speech!"

The black-haired man started toward them. His coarse face had a
smile on it as vicious as the snarl of a tiger. He put up his hand
in a gesture of command.

"Beg her pardon!" repeated Tunis, and by the great weight of his
hand crushed the squalling patron of the restaurant to his knees
before the terrified girl.

"Stop that! What do you mean?" cried the manager of the restaurant,
still several yards away.

The patrons of the place had been thinning out for the last few
minutes. Most of those remaining were near the front. Some of the
waitresses were already seated at a table next to the kitchen slide,
eating their suppers.

"Take him off me!" roared the man squirming on the floor under Tunis
Latham's hand. "That thief of a girl set him on me. This is a nice
thing, be overcharged and then assaulted!"

He was talking for the benefit of the black-haired man. The latter
swooped down upon them. His face was purple with wrath and his fat
jowls trembled.

"Let him up! Do you hear me?" he exclaimed.

"He insulted this lady," said Tunis, indicating the waitress. "You
just heard him repeat it. He'll beg her pardon or I'll wring his
neck."

"What do you mean?" cried the r