e was he gave
no sign of it. As a matter of fact he was not, but he meant to be. He
remembered the girl; had admired her; had pointed out to several of
his friends that she had only to doll herself up in order to knock
spots out of a lot of good lookers of recognized supremacy.

Odette Coucoul's description of him as "most ver' beautiful fella"
was not without some justification. Regular, clean-cut features, long
and thin, were the complement of a slight well-knit figure, of which
the only criticism one could make was that it looked slippery.
Slipperiness was perhaps his ruling characteristic, a softness of
movement suggesting a cat, and a habit of putting out and drawing back
a long, supple, snake-like hand which made you think of a pickpocket.
Eyes that looked at you steadily enough impressed you as untrustworthy
chiefly because of a dropping of the pupil of the left, through
muscular inability.

"Awful sorry, Judson," was his summing up of sympathy with his
companion's narrative. "Any dope I get I'll pass along to you."

Between gentlemen, however, there are understandings which need not be
put into words, the principle of nothing for nothing being one of
them. The conversation had not progressed much further before Gorry
felt at liberty to say:

"Now, about this North Dakota Oil, Judson. I'd like awful well to get
in on the ground floor of that. I've got a little something to blow
in; and there's a lot of suckers ready to snap up that stock before
you print the certificates."

Diplomacy being necessary here Judson practiced it. Gorry might indeed
be seeking a way of turning an honest penny; but then again he might
mean to sell out the whole show. On the one hand you couldn't trust
him, and on the other it wouldn't do to offend him so long as there
was a chance of his getting news of the girl. Judson could only
temporize, pleading his lack of influence with the bunch who were
getting up the company. At the same time he would do his utmost to
work Gorry in, on the tacit understanding that nothing would be done
for nothing.

* * * * *

Allerton too had breakfasted late, at the New Netherlands Club, and
was now with Miss Barbara Walbrook, who received him in the same room,
and wearing the same hydrangea-colored robe, as on the previous
morning. He had called her up from the Club, asking to be allowed to
come once more at this unconventional hour in order to communicate