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 uniforms before her and an agony of fear pierced her soul. With a shriek she dropped the hand of Bateese and rushed for the door, but the cabby was too quick for her.

“No you don’t, duchess,” he said as he gripped her arm. “Sorry to interrupt you but we are going to pay a call—”

“What’s the matter there?” asked the captain, leaning forward.

“Lost,” answered the Jehu laconically, “an’ she, (jerking his thumb at the struggling Josephine), has bats in her belfry.”

The men gathered about while the driver told his tale, altering the fact of his having forgotten the house number to the statement that it had never been given him.

“You were a nice one to go driving off with an infant school an’ never askin’ where they belonged,” commented the captain.

“Well, say, if you’d been joggin’ by quiet Rh