A singular attitude to assume toward one who had perhaps saved his life, or at least averted a clash in which he was almost certain to have been hurt. Bob's mystification was entirely real. Ben made no reference to Bob's timely interference, and Nan, in the hope that Ben might be reminded of the omission, asked Bob how he had learned of their predicament.
"A child," said Bob—"a little girl who was beside herself at your danger, Nan."
"Rosario Richards, bless her heart!"
"She could scarcely speak in her excitement. She had been looking at the dance through the window, it seems."
"But why are you here—you of all persons—reeking with effeteness one may say? Surely you are not the guardian with whom I've been threatened?"
Bob shook his head.
"No such luck. I'm here only for a few days, then I'm off for a try at big game."
Mr. Robert Ellison had no notion of explaining that she was the sole cause of his presence there; that her hint of Spiser and his bogus hospitality, and afterward her long
