"Take "im back!" echoed Mary.

Humpy crumpled up in his chair at this new evidence of The Hopper"s insanity.

"I"m goin" to make a Chris"mas present o" Shaver to his ma," reaffirmed The Hopper, pinching the nearer ruddy cheek of the merry, contented guest.

Shaver kicked The Hopper in the stomach and emitted a chortle expressive of unshakable confidence in The Hopper"s ability to restore him to his lawful owners. This confidence was not, however, manifested toward Mary, who had prepared with care the only cereal her pantry afforded, and now approached Shaver, bowl and spoon in hand. Shaver, taken by surprise, inspected his supper with disdain and spurned it with a vigor that sent the spoon rattling across the floor.

"Me wants me"s paw-widge bowl! Me wants me"s own paw-widge bowl!" he screamed.

Mary expostulated; Humpy offered advice as to the best manner of dealing with the refractory Shaver, who gave further expression to his resentment by throwing The Hopper"s watch with violence against the wall. That the table-service of The Hopper"s establishment was not to Shaver"s liking was manifested in repeated rejections of the plain white bowl in which Mary offered the porridge. He demanded his very own porridge bowl with the increasing vehemence of one who is willing to starve rather than accept so palpable a subst.i.tute. He threw himself back on the table and lay there kicking and crying. Other needs now occurred to Shaver: he wanted his papa; he wanted his mamma; he wanted to go to his gwan"pa"s. He clamored for Santa Claus and numerous Christmas trees which, it seemed, had been promised him at the houses of his kinsfolk. It was amazing and bewildering that the heart of one so young could desire so many things that were not immediately attainable. He had begun to suspect that he was among strangers who were not of his way of life, and this was fraught with the gravest danger.

"They"ll hear "im hollerin" in China," wailed the pessimistic Humpy, running about the room and examining the fastenings of doors and windows. "Folks goin" along the road"ll hear "im, an" it"s terms fer the whole bunch!"

The Hopper began pacing the floor with Shaver, while Humpy and Mary denounced the child for unreasonableness and lack of discipline, not overlooking the stupidity and criminal carelessness of The Hopper in projecting so lawless a youngster into their domestic circle.

"Twenty years, that"s wot ut is!" mourned Humpy.

"Ye kin get the chair fer kidnapin"," Mary added dolefully. "Ye gotta get "im out o" here, Bill."

Pleasant predictions of a long prison term with capital punishment as the happy alternative failed to disturb The Hopper. To their surprise and somewhat to their shame he won the Shaver to a tractable humor. There was nothing in The Hopper"s known past to justify any expectation that he could quiet a crying baby, and yet Shaver with a child"s unerring instinct realized that The Hopper meant to be kind. He patted The Hopper"s face with one fat little paw, chokingly declaring that he was hungry.

" "Course Shaver"s hungry; an" Shaver"s goin" to eat nice porridge Aunt Mary made fer "im. Shaver"s goin" to have "is own porridge bowl to-morry-yes, sir-ee, oo is, little Shaver!"

Restored to the table, Shaver opened his mouth in obedience to The Hopper"s patient pleading and swallowed a spoonful of the mush, Humpy holding the bowl out of sight in tactful deference to the child"s delicate aesthetic sensibilities. A tumbler of milk was sipped with grateful gasps.

The Hopper grinned, proud of his success, while Mary and Humpy viewed his efforts with somewhat grudging admiration, and waited patiently until The Hopper took the wholly surfeited Shaver in his arms and began pacing the floor, humming softly. In normal circ.u.mstances The Hopper was not musical, and Humpy and Mary exchanged looks which, when interpreted, pointed to nothing less than a belief that the owner of Happy Hill Farm was bereft of his senses. There was some question as to whether Shaver should be undressed. Mary discouraged the idea and Humpy took a like view.

"Ye gotta chuck "im quick; that"s what ye gotta do," said Mary hoa.r.s.ely. "We don"t want "im sleepin" here."

Whereupon The Hopper demonstrated his entire independence by carrying the Shaver to Humpy"s bed and partially undressing him. While this was in progress, Shaver suddenly opened his eyes wide and raising one foot until it approximated the perpendicular, reached for it with his chubby hands.

"Sant" Claus comin"; m"y Kwismus!"

"Jes" listen to Shaver!" chuckled The Hopper. " "Course Santy is comin," an" we"re goin" to hang up Shaver"s stockin", ain"t we, Shaver?"

He pinned both stockings to the footboard of Humpy"s bed. By the time this was accomplished under the hostile eyes of Mary and Humpy, Shaver slept the sleep of the innocent.

IV.

They watched the child in silence for a few minutes and then Mary detached a gold locket from his neck and bore it to the kitchen for examination.

"Ye gotta move quick, Hop," Humpy urged. "The white card"s what we wuz all goin" to play. We wuz fixed nice here, an" things goin" easy; an" the yard full o" br"ilers. I don"t want to do no more time. I"m an ole man, Hop."

"Cut ut!" ordered The Hopper, taking the locket from Mary and weighing it critically in his hand. They bent over him as he scrutinized the face on which was inscribed:- Roger Livingston Talbot June 13, 1913 "Lemme see; he"s two an" a harf. Ye purty nigh guessed "im right, Mary."

The sight of the gold trinket, the probability that the Shaver belonged to a family of wealth, proved disturbing to Humpy"s late protestations of virtue.

"They"d be a heap o" kale in ut, Hop. His folks is rich, I reckon. Ef we wuzn"t playin" the white card-"

Ignoring this shocking evidence of Humpy"s moral instability, The Hopper became lost in reverie, meditatively drawing at his pipe.

"We ain"t never goin" to quit playin" ut square," he announced, to Mary"s manifest relief. "I hadn"t ought t" "a" done th" dippin". It were a mistake. My ole head wuzn"t workin" right er I wouldn"t "a" slipped. But ye needn"t jump on me no more."

"Wot ye goin" to do with that kid? Ye tell me that!" demanded Mary, unwilling too readily to accept The Hopper"s repentance at face value.

"I"m goin" to take "im to "is folks, that"s wot I"m goin" to do with "im," announced The Hopper.

"Yer crazy-yer plum" crazy!" cried Humpy, slapping his knees excitedly. "Ye kin take "im to an orphant asylum an" tell um ye found "im in that machine ye lifted. And mebbe ye"ll git by with ut an" mebbe ye won"t, but ye gotta keep me out of ut!"

"I found the machine in th" road, right here by th" house; an" th" kid was in ut all by hisself. An" bein" humin an" respectible I brought "im in to keep "im from freezin" t" death," said The Hopper, as though repeating lines he was committing to memory. "They ain"t n.o.body can say as I didn"t. Ef I git pinched, that"s my spiel to th" cops. It ain"t kidnapin"; it"s life-savin", that"s wot ut is! I"m a-goin" back an" have a look at that place where I got "im. Kind o" queer they left the kid out there in the buzz-wagon; mighty queer, now"s I think of ut. Little house back from the road; lots o" trees an" bushes in front. Didn"t seem to be no lights. He keeps talkin" about Chris"mas at his grandpa"s. Folks must "a" been goin" to take th" kid somewheres fer Chris"mas. I guess it"ll throw a skeer into "em to find him up an" gone."

"They"s rich, an" all the big bulls"ll be lookin" fer "im; ye"d better "phone the New Haven cops ye"ve picked "im up. Then they"ll come out, an" yer spiel about findin" "im"ll sound easy an" sensible like."

The Hopper, puffing his pipe philosophically, paid no heed to Humpy"s suggestion even when supported warmly by Mary.

"I gotta find some way o" puttin" th" kid back without seein" no cops. I"ll jes" take a sneak back an" have a look at th" place," said The Hopper. "I ain"t goin" to turn Shaver over to no cops. Ye can"t take no chances with "em. They don"t know nothin" about us bein" here, but they ain"t fools, an" I ain"t goin" to give none o" "em a squint at me!"

He defended his plan against a joint attack by Mary and Humpy, who saw in it only further proof of his tottering reason. He was obliged to tell them in harsh terms to be quiet, and he added to their rage by the deliberation with which he made his preparations to leave.

He opened the door of a clock and drew out a revolver which he examined carefully and thrust into his pocket. Mary groaned; Humpy beat the air in impotent despair. The Hopper possessed himself also of a jimmy and an electric lamp. The latter he flashed upon the face of the sleeping Shaver, who turned restlessly for a moment and then lay still again. He smoothed the coverlet over the tiny form, while Mary and Humpy huddled in the doorway. Mary wept; Humpy was awed into silence by his old friend"s perversity. For years he had admired The Hopper"s cleverness, his genius for extricating himself from difficulties; he was deeply shaken to think that one who had stood so high in one of the most exacting of professions should have fallen so low. As The Hopper imperturbably b.u.t.toned his coat and walked toward the door, Humpy set his back against it in a last attempt to save his friend from his own foolhardiness.

"Ef anybody turns up here an" asks for th" kid, ye kin tell "em wot I said. We finds "im in th" road right here by the farm when we"re doin" th" night ch.o.r.es an" takes "im in t" keep "im from freezin". Ye"ll have th" machine an" kid here to show "em. An" as fer me, I"m off lookin" fer his folks."

Mary buried her face in her ap.r.o.n and wept despairingly. The Hopper, noting for the first time that Humpy was guarding the door, roughly pushed him aside and stood for a moment with his hand on the k.n.o.b.

"They"s things wot is," he remarked with a last attempt to justify his course, "an" things wot ain"t. I reckon I"ll take a peek at that place an" see wot"s th" best way t" shake th" kid. Ye can"t jes" run up to a house in a machine with his folks all settin" round cryin" an" cops askin" questions. Ye got to do some plannin" an" thinkin". I"m goin" t" clean ut all up before daylight, an" ye need n"t worry none about ut. Hop ain"t worryin"; jes" leave ut t" Hop!"

There was no alternative but to leave it to Hop, and they stood mute as he went out and softly closed the door.

V.

The snow had ceased and the stars shone brightly on a white world as The Hopper made his way by various trolley lines to the house from which he had s.n.a.t.c.hed Shaver. On a New Haven car he debated the prospects of more snow with a policeman who seemed oblivious to the fact that a child had been stolen-shamelessly carried off by a man with a long police record. Merry Christmas pa.s.sed from lip to lip as if all creation were attuned to the note of love and peace, and crime were an undreamed-of thing.

For two years The Hopper had led an exemplary life and he was keenly alive now to the joy of adventure. His lapses of the day were unfortunate; he thought of them with regret and misgivings, but he was zestful for whatever the unknown held in store for him. Abroad again with a pistol in his pocket, he was a lawless being, but with the difference that he was intent now upon making rest.i.tution, though in such manner as would give him something akin to the old thrill that he experienced when he enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most skillful yeggs in the country. The successful thief is of necessity an imaginative person; he must be able to visualize the unseen and to deal with a thousand hidden contingencies. At best the chances are against him; with all his ingenuity the broad, heavy hand of the law is likely at any moment to close upon him from some unexpected quarter. The Hopper knew this, and knew, too, that in yielding to the exhilaration of the hour he was likely to come to grief. Justice has a long memory, and if he again made himself the object of police scrutiny that little forty-thousand-dollar affair in Maine might still be fixed upon him.

When he reached the house from whose gate he had removed the roadster with Shaver attached, he studied it with the eye of an experienced strategist. No gleam anywhere published the presence of frantic parents bewailing the loss of a baby. The cottage lay snugly behind its barrier of elms and shrubbery as though its young heir had not vanished into the void. The Hopper was a deliberating being and he gave careful weight to these circ.u.mstances as he crept round the walk, in which the snow lay undisturbed, and investigated the rear of the premises. The lattice door of the summer kitchen opened readily, and, after satisfying himself that no one was stirring in the lower part of the house, he pried up the sash of a window and stepped in. The larder was well stocked, as though in preparation for a Christmas feast, and he pa.s.sed on to the dining-room, whose appointments spoke for good taste and a degree of prosperity in the householder.

Cautious flashes of his lamp disclosed on the table a hamper, in which were packed a silver cup, plate, and bowl which at once awoke the Hopper"s interest. Here indubitably was proof that this was the home of Shaver, now sleeping sweetly in Humpy"s bed, and this was the porridge bowl for which Shaver"s soul had yearned. If Shaver did not belong to the house, he had at least been a visitor there, and it struck The Hopper as a reasonable a.s.sumption that Shaver had been deposited in the roadster while his lawful guardians returned to the cottage for the hamper preparatory to an excursion of some sort. But The Hopper groped in the dark for an explanation of the calmness with which the householders accepted the loss of the child. It was not in human nature for the parents of a youngster so handsome and in every way so delightful as Shaver to permit him to be stolen from under their very noses without making an outcry. The Hopper examined the silver pieces and found them engraved with the name borne by the locket. He crept through a living-room and came to a Christmas tree-the smallest of Christmas trees. Beside it lay a number of packages designed clearly for none other than young Roger Livingston Talbot.

Housebreaking is a very different business from the forcible entry of country post-offices, and The Hopper was nervous. This particular house seemed utterly deserted. He stole upstairs and found doors open and a disorder indicative of the occupants" hasty departure. His attention was arrested by a small room finished in white, with a white enameled bed, and other furniture to match. A generous litter of toys was the last proof needed to establish the house as Shaver"s true domicile. Indeed, there was every indication that Shaver was the central figure of this home of whose charm and atmosphere The Hopper was vaguely sensible. A frieze of dancing children and water-color sketches of Shaver"s head, dabbed here and there in the most unlooked-for places, hinted at an artistic household. This impression was strengthened when The Hopper, bewildered and baffled, returned to the lower floor and found a studio opening off the living-room. The Hopper had never visited a studio before, and, satisfied now that he was the sole occupant of the house, he pa.s.sed about shooting his light upon unfinished canvases, pausing finally before an easel supporting a portrait of Shaver-newly finished, he discovered, by poking his finger into the wet paint. Something fell to the floor and he picked up a large sheet of drawing-paper on which this message was written in charcoal:- Six-thirty.

Dear Sweetheart:- This is a fine trick you have played on me, you dear girl! I"ve been expecting you back all afternoon. At six I decided that you were going to spend the night with your infuriated parent and thought I"d try my luck with mine! I put Billie into the roadster and, leaving him there, ran over to the Flemings" to say Merry Christmas and tell "em we were off for the night. They kept me just a minute to look at those new j.a.p prints Jim"s so crazy about, and while I was gone you came along and skipped with Billie and the car! I suppose this means that you"ve been making headway with your dad and want to try the effect of Billie"s blandishments. Good luck! But you might have stopped long enough to tell me about it! How fine it would be if everything could be straightened out for Christmas! Do you remember the first time I kissed you-it was on Christmas Eve four years ago at the Billings"s dance! I"m just trolleying out to father"s to see what an evening session will do. I"ll be back early in the morning.

Love always, Roger.

Billie was undoubtedly Shaver"s nickname. This delighted The Hopper. That they should possess the same name appeared to create a strong bond of comradeship. The writer of the note was presumably the child"s father and the "Dear Sweetheart" the youngster"s mother. The Hopper was not rea.s.sured by these disclosures. The return of Shaver to his parents was far from being the pleasant little Christmas Eve adventure he had imagined. He had only the lowest opinion of a father who would, on a winter evening, carelessly leave his baby in a motor-car while he looked at pictures, and who, finding both motor and baby gone, would take it for granted that the baby"s mother had run off with them. But these people were artists, and artists, The Hopper had heard, were a queer breed, sadly lacking in common sense. He tore the note into strips which he stuffed into his pocket.

Depressed by the impenetrable wall of mystery along which he was groping, he returned to the living-room, raised one of the windows, and unbolted the front door to make sure of an exit in case these strange, foolish Talbots should unexpectedly return. The shades were up and he shielded his light carefully with his cap as he pa.s.sed rapidly about the room. It began to look very much as though Shaver would spend Christmas at Happy Hill Farm-a possibility that had not figured in The Hopper"s calculations.

Flashing his lamp for a last survey a letter propped against a lamp on the table arrested his eye. He dropped to the floor and crawled into a corner where he turned his light upon the note and read, not without difficulty, the following:- Seven o"clock.

Dear Roger:- I"ve just got back from father"s where I spent the last three hours talking over our troubles. I didn"t tell you I was going, knowing you would think it foolish, but it seemed best, dear, and I hope you"ll forgive me. And now I find that you"ve gone off with Billie, and I"m guessing that you"ve gone to your father"s to see what you can do. I"m taking the trolley into New Haven to ask Mamie Palmer about that cook she thought we might get, and if possible I"ll bring the girl home with me. Don"t trouble about me, as I"ll be perfectly safe, and, as you know, I rather enjoy prowling around at night. You"ll certainly get back before I do, but if I"m not here don"t be alarmed.

We are so happy in each other, dear, and if only we could get our foolish fathers to stop hating each other, how beautiful everything would be! And we could all have such a merry, merry Christmas!

Muriel.

The Hopper"s acquaintance with the epistolary art was the slightest, but even to a mind unfamiliar with this branch of literature it was plain that Shaver"s parents were involved in some difficulty that was attributable, not to any lessening of affection between them, but to a row of some sort between their respective fathers. Muriel, running into the house to write her note, had failed to see Roger"s letter in the studio, and this was very fortunate for The Hopper; but Muriel might return at any moment, and it would add nothing to the plausibility of the story he meant to tell if he were found in the house.

VI.

Anxious and dejected at the increasing difficulties that confronted him, he was moving toward the door when a light, buoyant step sounded on the veranda. In a moment the living-room lights were switched on from the entry and a woman called out sharply:- "Stop right where you are or I"ll shoot!"

The authoritative voice of the speaker, the quickness with which she had grasped the situation and leveled her revolver, brought The Hopper to an abrupt halt in the middle of the room, where he fell with a discordant crash across the keyboard of a grand piano. He turned, cowering, to confront a tall, young woman in a long ulster who advanced toward him slowly, but with every mark of determination upon her face. The Hopper stared beyond the gun, held in a very steady hand, into a pair of fearless dark eyes. In all his experiences he had never been cornered by a woman, and he stood gaping at his captor in astonishment. She was a very pretty young woman, with cheeks that still had the curve of youth, but with a chin that spoke for much firmness of character. A fur toque perched a little to one side gave her a boyish air.

This undoubtedly was Shaver"s mother who had caught him prowling in her house, and all The Hopper"s plans for explaining her son"s disappearance and returning him in a manner to win praise and grat.i.tude went glimmering. There was nothing in the appearance of this Muriel to encourage a hope that she was either embarra.s.sed or alarmed by his presence. He had been captured many times, but the trick had never been turned by any one so cool as this young woman. She seemed to be pondering with the greatest calmness what disposition she should make of him. In the intentness of her thought the revolver wavered for an instant, and The Hopper, without taking his eyes from her, made a cat-like spring that brought him to the window he had raised against just such an emergency.

"None of that!" she cried, walking slowly toward him without lowering the pistol. "If you attempt to jump from that window I"ll shoot! But it"s cold in here and you may lower it."

The Hopper, weighing the chances, decided that the odds were heavily against escape, and lowered the window.

"Now," said Muriel, "step into that corner and keep your hands up where I can watch them."

The Hopper obeyed her instructions strictly. There was a telephone on the table near her and he expected her to summon help; but to his surprise she calmly seated herself, resting her right elbow on the arm of the chair, her head slightly tilted to one side, as she inspected him with greater attention along the blue-black barrel of her automatic. Unless he made a dash for liberty this extraordinary woman would, at her leisure, turn him over to the police as a house-breaker and his peaceful life as a chicken farmer would be at an end. Her prolonged silence troubled The Hopper. He had not been more nervous when waiting for the report of the juries which at times had pa.s.sed upon his conduct, or for judges to fix his term of imprisonment.

"Yes"m," he muttered, with a view to ending a silence that had become intolerable.

Her eyes danced to the accompaniment of her thoughts, but in no way did she betray the slightest perturbation.

"I ain"t done nothin"; hones" to G.o.d, I ain"t!" he protested brokenly.

"I saw you through the window when you entered this room and I was watching while you read that note," said his captor. "I thought it funny that you should do that instead of packing up the silver. Do you mind telling me just why you read that note?"

"Well, miss, I jes" thought it kind o" funny there wuzn"t n.o.body round an" the letter was layin" there all open, an" I didn"t see no harm in lookin"."

"It was awfully clever of you to crawl into the corner so n.o.body could see your light from the windows," she said with a tinge of admiration. "I suppose you thought you might find out how long the people of the house were likely to be gone and how much time you could spend here. Was that it?"

"I reckon ut wuz somethin" like that," he agreed.

This was received with the noncommittal "Um" of a person whose thoughts are elsewhere. Then, as though she were eliciting from an artist or man of letters a frank opinion as to his own ideas of his attainments and professional standing, she asked, with a meditative air that puzzled him as much as her question:- "Just how good a burglar are you? Can you do a job neatly and safely?"

The Hopper, staggered by her inquiry and overcome by modesty, shrugged his shoulders and twisted about uncomfortably.

"I reckon as how you"ve pinched me I ain"t much good," he replied, and was rewarded with a smile followed by a light little laugh. He was beginning to feel pleased that she manifested no fear of him. In fact, he had decided that Shaver"s mother was the most remarkable woman he had ever encountered, and by all odds the handsomest. He began to take heart. Perhaps after all he might hit upon some way of restoring Shaver to his proper place in the house of Talbot without making himself liable to a long term for kidnaping.

"If you"re really a successful burglar-one who doesn"t just poke around in empty houses as you were doing here, but clever and brave enough to break into houses where people are living and steal things without making a mess of it; and if you can play fair about it-then I think-I think-maybe-we can come to terms!"

"Yes"m!" faltered The Hopper, beginning to wonder if Mary and Humpy had been right in saying that he had lost his mind. He was so astonished that his arms wavered, but she was instantly on her feet and the little automatic was again on a level with his eyes.

"Excuse me, miss, I didn"t mean to drop "em. I weren"t goin" to do nothin". Hones" I wuzn"t!" he pleaded with real contrition. "It jes" seemed kind o" funny what ye said."

He grinned sheepishly. If she knew that her Billie, alias Shaver, was not with her husband at his father"s house, she would not be dallying in this fashion. And if the young father, who painted pictures, and left notes in his studio in a blind faith that his wife would find them,-if that trusting soul knew that Billie was asleep in a house all of whose inmates had done penance behind prison bars, he would very quickly become a man of action. The Hopper had never heard of such careless parenthood! These people were children! His heart warmed to them in pity and admiration, as it had to little Billie.

"I forgot to ask you whether you are armed," she remarked, with just as much composure as though she were asking him whether he took two lumps of sugar in his tea; and then she added, "I suppose I ought to have asked you that in the first place."

"I gotta gun in my coat-right side," he confessed. "An" that"s all I got," he added, batting his eyes under the spell of her bewildering smile.

With her left hand she cautiously extracted his revolver and backed away with it to the table.

"If you"d lied to me I should have killed you; do you understand?"

"Yes"m," murmured The Hopper meekly.

She had spoken as though homicide were a common incident of her life, but a gleam of humor in the eyes she was watching vigilantly abated her severity.

"You may sit down-there, please!"

She pointed to a much bepillowed davenport and The Hopper sank down on it, still with his hands up. To his deepening mystification she backed to the windows and lowered the shades, and this done she sat down with the table between them, remarking,- "You may put your hands down now, Mr.--?"

He hesitated, decided that it was unwise to give any of his names; and respecting his scruples she said with great magnanimity:- "Of course you wouldn"t want to tell me your name, so don"t trouble about that."

She sat, wholly tranquil, her arms upon the table, both hands caressing the small automatic, while his own revolver, of different pattern and larger caliber, lay close by. His status was now established as that of a gentleman making a social call upon a lady who, in the pleasantest manner imaginable and yet with undeniable resoluteness, kept a deadly weapon pointed in the general direction of his person.

A clock on the mantel struck eleven with a low, silvery note. Muriel waited for the last stroke and then spoke crisply and directly.

"We were speaking of that letter I left lying here on the table. You didn"t understand it, of course; you couldn"t-not really. So I will explain it to you. My husband and I married against our fathers" wishes; both of them were opposed to it."

She waited for this to sink into his perturbed consciousness. The Hopper frowned and leaned forward to express his sympathetic interest in this confidential disclosure.

"My father," she resumed, "is just as stupid as my father-in-law and they have both continued to make us just as uncomfortable as possible. The cause of the trouble is ridiculous. There"s nothing against my husband or me, you understand; it"s simply a bitter jealousy between the two men due to the fact that they are rival collectors."

The Hopper stared blankly. The only collectors with whom he had enjoyed any acquaintance were persons who presented bills for payment.

"They are collectors," Muriel hastened to explain, "of ceramics-precious porcelains and that sort of thing."

"Yes"m," a.s.sented The Hopper, who hadn"t the faintest notion of what she meant.

"For years, whenever there have been important sales of these things, which men fight for and are willing to die for-whenever there has been something specially fine in the market, my father-in-law-he"s Mr. Talbot-and Mr. Wilton-he"s my father-have bid for them. There are auctions, you know, and people come from all over the world looking for a chance to buy the rarest pieces. They"ve explored China and j.a.pan hunting for prizes and they are experts-men of rare taste and judgment-what you call connoisseurs."

The Hopper nodded gravely at the unfamiliar word, convinced that not only were Muriel and her husband quite insane, but that they had inherited the infirmity.

"The trouble has been," Muriel continued, "that Mr. Talbot and my father both like the same kind of thing; and when one has got something the other wanted, of course it has added to the ill-feeling. This has been going on for years and recently they have grown more bitter. When Roger and I ran off and got married, that didn"t help matters any; but just within a few days something has happened to make things much worse than ever."

The Hopper"s complete absorption in this novel recital was so manifest that she put down the revolver with which she had been idling and folded her hands.

"Thank ye, miss," mumbled The Hopper.

"Only last week," Muriel continued, "my father-in-law bought one of those pottery treasures-a plum-blossom vase made in China hundreds of years ago and very, very valuable. It belonged to a Philadelphia collector who died not long ago and Mr. Talbot bought it from the executor of the estate, who happened to be an old friend of his. Father was very angry, for he had been led to believe that this vase was going to be offered at auction and he"d have a chance to bid on it. And just before that father had got hold of a jar-a perfectly wonderful piece of red Lang-Yao-that collectors everywhere have coveted for years. This made Mr. Talbot furious at father. My husband is at his father"s now trying to make him see the folly of all this, and I visited my father to-day to try to persuade him to stop being so foolish. You see I wanted us all to be happy for Christmas! Of course, Christmas ought to be a time of gladness for everybody. Even people in your-er-profession must feel that Christmas is one day in the year when all hard feelings should be forgotten and everybody should try to make others happy."