l starin' at me, sort of stunned.

"German money!" she repeats. "Him!"

"Anton will show you the checks," says I. "He don't care where they
come from, so long as he can cash 'em. But you might hint to him that if
another big strike is pulled it's apt to be a long one, and in that case
the movie business will get a crimp put in it. The Warsaw receipts, too.
I take it that Stukey's tryin' to work the hands up to a point where
they'll vote for----"

"To-night they vote," breaks in Anna. "In two hours."

I lets out a whistle. "Zowie!" says I. "Guess I'm a little late. Say,
you got a 'phone here. Would it do any good if you called Anton up
and----"

"No," snaps Anna. "He thinks too slow. I must do this myself."

"You?" says I. "What could you do?"

"I don't know," says Anna. "But I must try. And quick. Hey, Marson!
You--at the door. Come here and sell the tickets. Put an usher in your
place."

With that she bounces down off the tall chair, shoves the substitute
into her place, and goes streamin' out bare-headed. I decides to follow.
But she leaves me behind as though I'd been standin' still.

At the Warsaw I finds Anton smokin' placid in his little office.

"Seen Anna?" I asks.

"Anna!" says he. "She should be selling tickets at the----"

"She was," says I; "but just now she's upstairs in the hall."

"At the meetin'?" gasps Anton. "Anna? Oh, no!"

"Come, take a look," says I.

And, for once in his life, Anton got a quick move on. He don't ask me to
follow, but I trails along; and just as we strikes the top stair we
hears a rousin' cheer go up. I suppose any other time we'd been barred
out, but there's nobody to hold us up as we pushes through, for everyone
has their eyes glued on the little stage at the far end of the hall.

No wonder. For there, standin' up before more than three hundred yellin'
men, is this high-colored young woman.

Course, I couldn't get a word of it, my Polish education havin' been
sadly neglected when I was young. But Anna seems to be tellin' some sort
of story. My guess was that it's the one she'd hinted at to me--about
her father and brothers and sister. But this time she seems to be
throwin' in all the details.

[Illustration: "Quick as a flash, Anna turns and points to Stukey. I
caught his name as she hisses it out. Stukey, turnin' a sickly yellow,
slumps in his chair."]

There was nothin' frivolous about Anna's eyes now. It almost gave me a
creepy feelin' to watch 'em--as i