A NIGHT OUT

BY EDWARD PEPLE

_Frontispiece by_ R.L. GOLDBERG






[Illustration: "The Beast has had the time of his life."]




I


Omar Ben Sufi was a cat. This unadorned statement would have wounded Omar
Ben to the marrow of his pride, for he chanced to be a splendid
tiger-marked feline of purest Persian breed, with glorious yellow eyes
and a Solomon-in-all-his-glory tail. His pedigree could be traced
directly back to Padisha Zim Yuki Yowsi Zind--a dignity, in itself,
sufficient to cause an aristocratic languor; but, to the layman, he was
just a cat.

He dwelt with an exclusive family of humans in a little
eighty-thousand-dollar cottage on the outskirts of vulgarity--which is
to say, the villa was situated near enough to town to admit of marketing,