rately laid off that pump, hopin' we'd get
killed!"

With that he starts an uppercut from the ground, but I yanked him away
just as De Vronde murmurs, "Safety first!" and takes a dive. Miss
Vincent gets out and gives me a hand with the Kid, and De Vronde sits
up and menaces us with his cane.

"That isn't a bit nice!" Miss Vincent frowns at the Kid. "That's
ruffianly! You never should have struck him!"

"I didn't hit him!" yells the Kid. "The big tramp quit! If I had hit
him he wouldn't be gettin' up."

He starts over again, but I held him until she has climbed into the car
with De Vronde and they shoot up the road. Just before they
disappeared, De Vronde turns around in the seat and shakes his finger
at us.

"Only the presence of the lady," he calls, "saves you from my wrath!"

"Come on!" says the Kid, grabbin' my arm. "Let's get the next train
for Frisco, before I run after that guy and flatten him! Believe me,"
he goes on, lookin' up the road after the car, "I'll get that bird
before the day is over if I have to bust a leg!"

And that's just what he did--both!

All the way over in the train I tried to work the third degree on the
Kid to find out what he was goin' to buy, but there was nothin' doin'.
He stalled me off until we pull into the town and then he takes me to a
street that was so far from the railroad station I come near castin' a
shoe on the way over. About half way down this boulevard there's a
garage and the Kid stops in front of it.

"Wait here!" he tells me. "And don't let nobody give you no babies to
mind. I'll be right out!"

He slips inside and I'm lookin' the joint over when a big sign catches
my eye. I took one good flash at the thing, and then I starts right in
after the Kid. A friend of mine in New York had gone into a place with
a sign on it like that one time and made a purchase. Six months later
when he come out of the hospital, he claimed the bare smell of gasoline
made him faint Here's what it said on that sign,

J. MARKOWITZ

USED AND NEARLY NEW AUTOS

FOR SALE

It was kinda dark inside and it takes me a minute to get my bearin's,
but finally I see the Kid and a snappy dressed guy standin' in front of
what I at first thought was a Pullman sleeper. When I get a close up,
though, I find it's only a tourin' car. It was the biggest automobile
I ever seen in my life; a sightseein' bus would have looked like a
runabout alongside of it. Th