much mystery bringing her in from the kitchen, where she had been curiously
peeping out at them.

"Got to let her in," he whispered to Manley, "to keep her face closed."

They murmured together for five minutes. Kent seemed to meet with some
opposition from Fleetwood--an aftermath of Valeria's objections to
flight--and became brutally direct.

"Go ahead--do as you please," he said roughly. "But you know that bunch.
You'll have to show up, and you'll have to set 'em up, and--aw, thunder!
By morning you'll be plumb laid out. You'll be headed into one of your
four-day jags, and you know it. I was thinking of the girl--but if you
don't care, I guess it's none of my funeral. Go to it--but darned if I'd
want to start my honeymoon out like that!"

Fleetwood weakened, but still he hesitated. "If I didn't show up--" he
began hopefully. But Kent wittered him with a look.

"That bunch will be two-thirds full before they start out. If you don't
show up, they'll go up and haul you outa bed--hell, Man! You'd likely start
in to kill somebody off. Fred De Garmo don't love you much better than he
loves me. You know what him and his friends would do then, I should think."
He stopped, and seemed to consider briefly a plan, but shook his head
over it. "I could round up a bunch and stand 'em off, maybe--but we'd be
shooting each other up, first rattle of the box. It's a whole lot easier
for you to get outa town."

"I'll tell somebody you got the bridal chamber," hissed Arline, in a very
loud whisper. "That's number two, in front. I can keep a light going and