thing
like that? Here, lemme step in and leave a note for Miss Vee. I want
her to call me up when she comes in. No I'll dash it off right here on
the lib'ry table. Here's a pad and--"

I broke off there, because my mouth was open too wide for further
remarks. On the table was a big atlas opened to the map of Florida.
And on the margin, with a line drawn from about the middle of the west
coast, was something written faint in pencil.

"Nunca Secos Key!" I reads. "Good night! Auntie's got the bug--and
Rupert."

"Vass it is?" asks Helma.

"I'm double-crossed, that's what it is," says I. "I've had a nice long
nap at the switch, and I've just woke up in time to see the fast
express crash on towards an open draw. Hal-lup! Hal-lup! I know I'll
never be the same again."

"It's too bad, yah," says Helma sympathetic.

"That don't half describe it," says I. "And what is goin' to happen
when I report to Old Hickory won't be nice to print in the papers."

"Should I say something by Miss Vee when she coom?" asks Helma.

"Yes," says I. "Tell her to kindly omit flowers."

And with that I starts draggy towards the elevator.

Oh, no! Private seccing ain't always what you might call a slumber
part.

CHAPTER X

WHEN AUNTIE CRASHES IN

You know Forty-seventh Street and Broadway, the northwest corner? Say,
would you judge there was a specially foolish streak runnin' across
town about there? No, I don't see why there should be; only it was
exactly on that spot I was struck by the hunch that this kidnappin' act
of Auntie's was a joke.

Now, look. A freckle-faced parlor pirate with no more credentials than
a park pan-handler blows in from nowhere particular, and tells a wild
yarn about buried treasure on the west cost of Florida. First off he
gets Old Hickory Ellins, president of the Corrugated Trust and
generally a cagey old boy, more or less worked up. Mr. Ellins turns
him over to me, with orders to watch him close while he's investigatin'
the tale. Then, when I'm gabbin' free and careless about it to Vee,
her Auntie sits there with her ear stretched. She wants to know what
hotel I've left the Captain at. And the next mornin' he's gone. Also
on other counts the arrow points to Auntie.

There I was, too, on my way back to Old Hickory, figurin' whether I'd
better resign first and report afterwards, or just take my chances that
maybe after he'd slept on it he wouldn't be so keen about seein' this