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 hideout. Both the Kid and Désirée seems tickled silly to take up their friendship where they left off in St. Thérèse, but it's different here! I ain't afraid of nothin' the Kid will do; I'm busy worryin' about what Désirée, with that quick French temper of hers, is liable to pull when she gets herself convinced that the Kid's interest in her is simply brotherly and that he's savin' any heavier feelin's for his wife.

That afternoon when Kid Roberts come back whistlin' gayly from seein' the appetizin' Désirée home, I asked him point-blank what she's doin' in the bustlin' hamlet of New York.

"She came here to realize a ambition," says the Kid, carefully layin' out his shavin' weapons. "She wants to go on the stage or in the movies—preferably the latter."

"So she's cuckoo, hey?" I sneers.

Kid Roberts stops whistlin' and swings around, frownin' at me.

"That's out, Joe!" he says warnin'ly. "Miss Collet is a delightful girl, as unspoiled and naïve as a child. She has youth, beauty, and undeniable personality, and I don't blame her for rebelling against her living entombment in that little lumber town, barren of congenial companionships or amusements."

"Tomato sauce!" I says. "The kid's nutty over you, and you better check her out!"

"Don't be an idiot," grins Kid Roberts, busy with the lather.

That very night Kid Roberts panics me by throwin' a party for Désirée and her father. He takes 'em to