first aid to our friend the
punching-bag."

They got him water and towels and a sponge. Steve, protesting
humorously, submitted to their ministrations. He was grateful for the
friendliness that prompted their kindness. The atmosphere had subtly
changed. During the afternoon he had sensed a little aloofness, an
intention on the part of the company members to stand off until they
knew him better. Now the ice was melted. They had taken him into the
family. He had passed with honors his preliminary examination.

CHAPTER III

CHAD HARRISON

As soon as Steve stepped into the dining-room he knew that the story of
his fight with Harrison had preceded him. His battered face became an
immediate focus of curious veiled glances. These exhibited an animated
interest rather than surprise.

Mrs. Seymour introduced him in turn to each of the other boarders, and
the furtive looks stared for a moment their frank questions at him. As
he drew in his chair beside a slender, tanned young woman, he knew with
some amusement that his arrival had interrupted a conversation of which
he had been the theme.

The film actress seated beside Yeager must have been in her very early
twenties, but her pretty face, finely modeled, had the provocative
effrontery that is the note of twentieth-century young womanhood. Its
audacity, which was the quintessence of worldliness, held an alert
been-through-it-all expression.

"I hope you like Los Robles, Mr. Yeager. Some of us don't, you know,"
she suggested.

"Like it fine, Miss Ellington," he answered with enthusiasm, accepting
from Ruth Seymour a platter of veal croquettes.

Daisy Ellington slanted mischievous eyes toward him. "Not much doing
here. It's a dead little hole. You'll be bored to death--if you haven't
been already."

"Me! I've found it right lively," retorted Steve, his eyes twinkling.
"Had all the excitement I could stand for one day. You see I come from
way back in the cow country, ma'am."

"And I came from New York," she sighed. "When it comes to little old
Broadway I'm there with bells on. What d'you mean, cow country? Ain't
this far enough off the map? Say, were you ever in New York?"

"Oncet. With a load of steers my boss was shipping to England. Lemme
see. It was three years ago come next October."

"Three years ago. Why, that was when I was in the pony ballet with
'Adam, Eve, and the Apple.' Did you see the show?"

"Bet I did."

Her eyes sparkled. "I was in the f