Page:Arthur Stringer - Twin Tales.djvu/93

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TWIN TALES
83

through wit' him. And he'll have a map like a fried egg!"

"But I don't want you to——"

"Leave that to me, lady," interrupted her champion, sensing what he recognized as purely feminine compunctions. "Yuh've gotta know when to quit, in this business, the same as when to start. Just leave it to me, and I'll do it, and do it right!"

"And what," demanded Teddie in the most businesslike tone of which she was capable, "will you expect me to pay you for this?"

"Pay me?" repeated Gunboat Dorgan, wheeling about on her. "Who said anything about a purse in this bout! I'm not doin' this for pay."

"Then what are you doing it for?" asked the slightly perplexed Teddie.

"I'm doin' it for yuh!" asserted Gunboat, leaning fraternally over the table-end.

"I've that little club-roadster of my own," the entirely unpractical Teddie rather feebly suggested, feeling the appropriateness of some effort to depersonal-