an't help
your husband to know that his happiness is right here, not in
a saloon."

"I---I fear that will be a big undertaking," quivered Mrs. Drake.

A big undertaking, indeed, it was bound to be!

CHAPTER XIX

"I'LL FIGHT HIM FOR THIS MAN!"

"It's wonderfully kind of you!" breathed the woman, gratefully.
"But it really won't do any good. When a man has begun to drink
nothing can reclaim him from it. My only hope is to be able to
have a talk with Tom when his money is gone."

"Of course if you dislike to have us try, Mrs. Drake-----" Dick
began.

"I don't dislike to have you try!" cried the woman, quickly.
"All I am thinking about is the hopelessness of your undertaking.
You simply can't get Tom out of Miller's to-night until the owner
of that awful place turns him out at closing time. I know! This
has happened before."

Dick stood in an uncertain attitude, his cap in hand. The appealing
face of the child, looking eagerly up at him, made him wish with
all his heart to try to do a good act here, yet he couldn't think
of going on such an errand without the young wife's permission.

"Let him go, mama," urged the child. "He'll bring papa back."

Dick looked questioningly at the woman.

"All right, then, go," she acquiesced. "Oh, I hope you have good
luck, and that you don't make Tom ugly, either. I'll say, for
him, that he has never been ugly yet."

"Mrs. Drake, we all four accept your commission---or permission,
whichever it is," replied Dick, bowing. "We'll try to use tact
and judgment, and we'll try to bring Mr. Drake back with us."

Dick asked a few questions as to where Miller's place might be
found. Then he set off, he and his chums walking abreast.

"Bring him back!" Mollie said plaintively. "Then mama won't cry,
and I won't, either."

"I feel like a fool!" muttered Tom Reade, when they were out of
earshot of the waiting mother and child.

"If you don't like the undertaking, you might keep in the background,"
Dick suggested.

"It's likely I'd back out of anything that's moving, isn't it?"
Reade demanded, offended. "I don't mind any disagreeable business
that we may run into. But I feel like a fool when I think of
the message we'll have to take back to that poor woman and baby."

"Tom Drake will deliver the message to them," replied Dick, firmly.

"If he's sober even now," murmured Danny Grin, uneasily.

"I'm strong for the task!" declared Dave Darrin, with enthusiasm.