extreme languor, and his gaze wandered from the
papers in his hand across the grimy roof tops.
  This time last year he and Miss Nell had made
their first pilgrimage to Valley Mead. It was just
such a day as this, warm and lazy, with big white
clouds loafing off there in the west. He wondered
if the peach trees were in bloom now, and whether
the white violets were coming up along the creek-
bank. How happy and contented Miss Nell always
seemed in the country! She had never known be-
fore what the outdoor life was like. How he would
like to take her hunting for big game up in the
Maine woods, or camping out in the Canadian
Rockies with old Cherokee Jo for a guide! Or bet-
ter still,-here his fancy bolted completely,-if he
could only slip with her aboard a transport and make
a thirty days' voyage through the South Seas!
  It was at this transcendent stage of his reveries
that a steely voice at his elbow observed:
  "You seem to be finding a great deal to interest
you in that smokestack, young man!"
  Quin descended from his height with brisk em-
barrassment.
  "Anything you wanted, sir" he asked.
  Mr. Bangs looked about cautiously to make sure
that nobody was in ear-shot, then he said abruptly:
  "I want you to come out to my place with me for
overnight. I want to talk with you."
  Quin's amazement at this request was so pro-



QUIN



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