s the
idea? What do you want us to do for you?"

"I ask you for the pleasure of your company," explained Mr. Hibbert.
"I'm a stranger in this town, and I'd like a little company."

"And---afterwards?" pursued Reade.

"'Afterwards'?" repeated Alonzo Hibbert looking puzzled.

"What do you want us to do for you by and by?" Tom asked.

"Oh, I see," replied Hibbert, laughing with keen enjoyment. "You
think my invitation a bait for services that I expect presently
to demand. Nothing of the sort, I assure you. All I want is
someone to talk to for the next half hour. Won't you oblige me?"

"Mr. Hibbert," broke in Dave suddenly, "I've just happened to
remember that there is a man in town who wants to talk with you.
We met him at the station, and he inquired where he could find
you."

"I think I know whom you mean," admitted Hibbert.

"We told him you were stopping at the Eagle Hotel," Greg added.

"Then, if the man who is looking for me went to the Eagle Hotel,
he has already learned that I am elsewhere. It's his business
to find me, not mine to run about town seeking him. He can find
me as well in the ice cream shop as in any other place. Will
you young men oblige me with your company?"

At a nod from Darrin the others fell in line. Mr. Hibbert led
the way across the street, entering the shop, which proved to
be empty of other customers.

As the waitress approached the two tables to take the orders for
ice cream the host of the occasion turned to his guests.

"Give the young woman your orders, gentlemen," said Alonzo Hibbert.

"Strawberry," said Tom.

"Vanilla," requested Dave.

"Oh, fudge!" interposed their host.

"We haven't any fudge ice cream, sir," remarked the waitress without
smiling.

"I cried fudge on their orders," remarked Hibbert gayly. "They
are too modest. Young woman, have you still some of those cantaloupes,
which you cut open and fill with different flavors of cream and
water ice?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then, young gentlemen, permit me to change the order to one of
those cantaloupes for each of you."

The waitress departed on her errand, while Reade and Darrin glanced
at each other, somewhat aghast. The delicacy ordered by Mr. Hibbert
cost a quarter of a dollar a portion.

When the orders were brought and placed on the table, Alonzo Hibbert
draw from his pocket a roll of bills, stripping off the outermost
and handing it to the waitress. Yet their host gave no sign of
attempti