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THE PURPLE PENNANT

Whereupon Fudge, Perry assisting, explained, and when he had finished Mr. Addicks insisted on shaking hands with them both very hard, so hard that their fingers ached for minutes afterwards.

"You chaps are a couple of bricks!" he told them delightedly. "I don't see why you took the trouble for me, but I'm certainly obliged. I hope Mr. Brent will come across with the job. Even if he shouldn't, I thank you just the same. What sort of a man is he, by the way?"

"He's a small man," replied Fudge uncertainly. "Sort of wrinkled. Looks right through you and out behind. Kind of scares you at first, I guess. He's got a lot of money and made it all himself. Gives a heap of it away, though, they say. I guess," he summed up shrewdly, "that if you don't let him scare you, you'll get on all right."

"I'll try not to," answered Mr. Addicks gravely. Perry smiled. The civil engineer didn't exactly look as if he would be easily frightened! And then Fudge recalled Lanny's message about the design for the pennant.

"Dick said they couldn't pay very much for it," he explained apologetically, "but maybe a couple of dollars——"

"A couple of fiddlesticks! It won't cost them

a cent. I'll be glad to do it. We'll talk it over

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