Page:Quinby and Son (1925).pdf/69

 now; it makes me nervous. I'll rush it, but don't crowd me."

Yet, for all the tailor's protestations of speed, his motions were leisurely, for he was a2 man not given to the excitement of haste. The hands of the clock crept around—twenty-five after, half-past, twenty-five minutes of four.

"There," said the tailor, "that's done, and no thanks to your fidgeting. Now to wrap paper around it and tie it. . . . Hey! It isn't tied. You'll be losing the vest or something and. . . ."

But Bert was gone. One instant of getting set in the saddle, and then he was off, dodging recklessly through the traffic of Washington Avenue. Twice he turned corners at a pace that held the bicycle at a perilous angle. Arrived at his Fairmount Avenue destination he did not bother this time to prop the wheel against the curb, but let it fall as he stepped from it. He ran up the walk to the house, and pressed hard on the button of the electric bell.

No answer. Time was flying. He rang the bell again, and then hastened to the rear of the house. There was no bell here, so he rapped with his knuckles against the glass of a kitchen window.

"Boy! Boy!"

He located the call. It came from a woman leaning out an upstairs window of a house two doors above.

"Are you looking for Mrs. Busher?"