"Huh?"

"Go out and get a good big basket. I shall want one to carry this
animal home in."

"Sure," said Master Maloney.



CHAPTER III

AT "THE GARDENIA"

"It would ill beseem me, Comrade Jackson," said Psmith,
thoughtfully sipping his coffee, "to run down the metropolis of a
great and friendly nation, but candour compels me to state that New
York is in some respects a singularly blighted town."

"What's the matter with it?" asked Mike.

"Too decorous, Comrade Jackson. I came over here principally, it is
true, to be at your side, should you be in any way persecuted by
scoundrels. But at the same time I confess that at the back of my
mind there lurked a hope that stirring adventures might come my
way. I had heard so much of the place. Report had it that an
earnest seeker after amusement might have a tolerably spacious rag
in this modern Byzantium. I thought that a few weeks here might
restore that keen edge to my nervous system which the languor of
the past term had in a measure blunted. I wished my visit to be a