shouts, stickin' my head in the door.
"Can I draw two bones for expense money? I'm on the trail."

"The blazes you are!" says he.

"Yep," says I. "Mebbe it's a false scent; but if I find him what's the
message?"

"Just ask Robert," says he, "if it has occurred to him that those P. K.
& Q. contract copies have got to be filed with the bonding company this
afternoon. That's all."

"Right!" says I. "P. K. & Q. contracts. I'm off."

Ever get as far up into the northwest corner of the island as Fort
Washington Road? Then you know how many blocks it is from the nearest
subway station. Not havin' time for a half-hour stroll, I takes a
Broadway express, jumps it at 157th, hunts up a taxi, and turns down the
red flag.

"Now don't try zigzaggin' around to roll up mileage," says I to the
shuffer; "but beat it straight there."

Some swell places up in that neck of Manhattan, what? Why, some of them
folks has so much back yard they keep their own cow. When we rolls in
through a pair of big stone gates I begin to suspect that the Misses
Pulsifers was lady plutes for fair, and the size of the house had me
stunned.

"I'm swell lookin' front door comp'ny, I am," thinks I, handin' over a
dollar thirty to the taxi pirate and paradin' in across the red carpet.
"Now what is it I tell the butler when he pushes out his tray?"

All the guard they has on the door, though, is a French maid, and when
she starts to look me over suspicious I shoves the invitation card at
her.

"Say, Marie," says I, "where's the doin's?"

"Pardon?" says she. "What you wish?"

"Ah, where do they keep the music?" says I.

"Ze musicale?" says she. "It is commence. S-s-s-sh!" and she points down
the hallway.

"Yes, I was afraid I'd be late," says I. "Glad they didn't wait. I'll
sneak into a back seat."

Did I? Well, say, I didn't know what I was runnin' into; for as I pushes
through some draperies I finds myself on the side lines of the biggest
herd of girls I ever saw collected in one room before. Why, there was
rows and rows of 'em, all in white dresses, and the minute I steps in
about two hundred pairs of eyes revolves my way.

Talk about jumpin' into the limelight! I felt like I'd wandered out on
the stage while the big scene was goin' on. Then comes the giggles, and
business with the elbows of passin' the nudge along. They all forgets
what's doin' up on the platform by the piano and pays strict attention
to me. Blush? Say, I'll bet my ears ain