hand your heart a flutter that I just couldn't resist his pleading
voice. It's a catchy jest, all right, and it's making me laugh.
The way you two ducks josh each other is pitiful, but your secret
is safe with me, Manager. I won't make no bad breaks, and Dodo
won't ever open her talk-trap. She never talks off the stage. On
the stage, say! she has the most elegant line of language that ever
left the pipes. Leave it all to me, Manager, and I'll see that the
McGowan family makes an awful hit with your fireside companions."

And Skinski kept his word.

He skilfully led Uncle Peter around to a discussion of
sleight-of-hand, and two minutes later the Wonder Worker was
dragging the coal shovel and the vinegar cruet out of the Mayor's
inside pockets, to the intense mystification and delight of the old
gentleman.

Uncle Peter was wearing a small diamond pin in his cravat and quite
by accident the setting became loose and the stone dropped to the
floor.

The old gentleman became very much concerned about it and we all
started to look for it.

"Wait a minute!" said Skinski; "the spark fell in your left-hand
vest pocket."

Uncle Peter looked at him blankly. "Impossible, why, there's
nothing there but this box of quinine pills for my cold."