h a line of red lanterns:

"Speaking of women, my dear Archie, do you share the joy of the lyric
poets in the species?"

"Women?" gulped Archie, as surprised as though he had been asked
suddenly his opinion of the _gazella dorcas_.

"The same, Archie. It occurs to me that you have probably had many
affairs. A fellow of your coolness and dash couldn't fail to appeal to
the incomprehensible sex. I'm thirty-four but I've loved only one
woman--that's the solemn truth, Archie. Occasionally small
indiscretions, I confess; and I sometimes weakly yield to the temptation
to flirt, but with my hand on my heart I declare solemnly that only once
have I ever been swayed by the grand passion. And strange as it may seem
she's a bishop's daughter, though a saint in her own right! O wonderful!
O sublime!"

This confidence, vague as to the identity and habitat of the lady of the
Governor's adoration, nevertheless made it incumbent upon Archie to make
some sort of reply. The Governor would probably be disappointed in him
if he confessed the meagerness of his experiences, and he felt that it
would be a grave error to jeopardize his standing with his companion.

"Well, I'm in the same boat," he answered glibly. "There's only one girl
for me!"

"Magnificent!" cried the Governor. "I hope she's not beyond your reach
like my goddess?"

"Well, I'll hardly say that," Archie replied. "But there are
difficulties, embarrassments, you know."

"Possibly your choice of the open road as a career is a bar to marriage?
Such situations are always deplorable."

"It is quite the other way round with me," Archie protested. "It was she
who put me up to it!"

"What! Your inamorata wanted you to be a crook?" cried the Governor.
"She must be a wonderful girl! Shoplifter, perhaps? There are some jolly
girls in that business! Or, maybe she's one of these confidence women
who play a sure game and usually get by with it?"

"Nothing like that!" cried Archie hastily. "She just fancies the
life--thinks it offers me a good chance to prove my mettle. She hates
conventionality."

This reference to Isabel Perry, remote and guarded as it was, he
defended only on the ground that it was necessary in some way to meet
the Governor half-way in his confidences. And what he had said was
really true, though to be sure Isabel could hardly be held responsible
for the shooting at the Congdon house. He wondered what Isabel would say
if she could see him with a criminal b