"Arrange it so that I may go home in Mr. Loring's car," she
directed.

"Three cheers!" approved Polly, with a spiteful glance at Gresham.

Mr. Courtney, a live-looking elderly gentleman who kept himself more
carefully groomed than many a young man, had shaken hands with Mr.
Gamble quite cordially, had studied him through and through and
through in about half a second of time, and had finished the hand-
shake more cordially than he had begun it.

"The colonel has been saying all sorts of kind things about you,"--
he very graciously stated.

"So he has about you," returned Johnny, smiling into Mr. Courtney's
eyes and liking him.

"I suppose so," admitted Mr. Courtney. "The colonel's always blowing
about his friends, so we mustn't trust each other too far."

"That's a good way to start anyhow," laughed Johnny. "The colonel's
been telling me you're so trusting that you stung yourself."

"How's that?" asked Mr. Courtney, looking at the colonel in
perplexity. "I don't quite understand."

"On that hotel deal," the colonel affably reminded him, and was
unkind enough to laugh.

"You old reprobate!" protested Courtney. "I don't see why you want