me running
forward to meet them" 199

"The two mounted the steps of the jail and jerked the bell" 253

"Never before had he had such overwhelming reason to doubt his
senses" 273

Jerry Junior

CHAPTER I

The courtyard of the Hotel du Lac, furnished with half a dozen tables and
chairs, a red and green parrot chained to a perch, and a shady little
arbor covered with vines, is a pleasant enough place for morning coffee,
but decidedly too sunny for afternoon tea. It was close upon four of a
July day, when Gustavo, his inseparable napkin floating from his arm,
emerged from the cool dark doorway of the house and scanned the burning
vista of tables and chairs. He would never, under ordinary circumstances,
have interrupted his siesta for the mere delivery of a letter; but this
particular letter was addressed to the young American man, and young
American men, as every head waiter knows, are an unreasonably impatient
lot. The court-yard was empty, as he might have foreseen, and he was
turning with a patient sigh towards the long arbor that led to the lake,
when the sound of a rustling paper in the summer house deflected his
course. He approached the doorway and looked inside.

The young American man, in white flannels with a red guide-book
protruding from his pocket, was comfortably stretched in a lounging chair
engaged with a cigarette and a copy of the Paris _Herald_. He glanced up
with a yawn--excusable under the circumstances--but as his eye fell upon
the letter he sprang to his feet.

"Hello, Gustavo! Is that for me?"

[Illustration: "'Hello, Gustavo! Is that for me?'"]

Gustavo bowed.

"_Ecco_! She is at last arrive, ze lettair for which you haf so moch
weesh." He bowed a second time and presented it. "Meestair Jayreen
Ailyar!"

The young man laughed.

"I don't wish to hurt your feelings, Gustavo, but I'm not sure I
should answer if my eyes were shut."

He picked up the letter, glanced at the address to make sure--the name
was Jerymn Hilliard Jr.--and ripped it open with an exaggerated sigh of
relief. Then he glanced up and caught Gustavo's expression. Gustavo came
of a romantic race; there was a gleam of sympathetic interest in his eye.

"Oh, you needn't look so knowing! I suppose you think this is a love
letter? Well it's not. It is, since you appear to be interested, a l