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160 I want 'o know," he continued as he confronted Gerry West, "just what call yuh've got for buttin' in on this?"

"I am acting for Miss Hayden," Gerry announced with gravity.

"We're all acting for Miss Hayden!" mocked Louis, with a foolish upward movement of his hands. But Gunboat ignored that derisive interruption.

"In what way 're yuh actin' for her?" he demanded, with his shoulders squared and his chin out.

"As her husband," said Gerry with a grimness which was quite new to him.

Gunboat swung slowly about and stared at the girl on the other side of the cherrywood table. He saw a slow flush creep up into the shell pink of her cheeks.

"Are yuh married to this mucker?" he demanded, with a thumb-jerk toward the unobserving Gerald Rhindelander West. And he swallowed hard as he put the question, just as Teddie used to swallow hard when she beheld the castor-oil bottle being lifted down out of the medicine cabinet.