Page:Arthur Stringer - Twin Tales.djvu/94

84 the issue. "It wouldn't be pay, of course. But when you and Ruby settle down in your flat it would be nice for running out into the country in hot weather. You'd take that, surely!"

Gunboat essayed a hand-movement of repudiation which he'd seen quite often in the movies. He was warmly conscious, in fact, of an appeasing touch of the theatrical in this knight-errantry that had bobbed so unexpectedly up at the tail end of a humdrum morning of dub-drilling and bag-punching.

"Noth-thing doin'!" he said with decision. "I get enough out of it when I see that stiff go to the mat. Yuh say he's goin' to horn in here at three o'clock. Well, I'll breeze in at three-two, railroad time. And I'll learn him to think twice before he flies that zooin'-bug around a girl who's been born and bred a lady!"

And even Teddie, as she stood up and shook hands with her new-found champion, was troubled by a vague yet persistent touch of theatricality about the situation