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 and this experience was not one he cared so soon to repeat. He gave the two ladies a hunted look, dropped his napkin upon the floor, and jumped up.

"Wait!" he said desperately. "I'll go with you." And he accompanied the dismayed and red-faced young man in as hurried a departure from the room as could be made without open indecorum. "My soul!" he exclaimed, when they reached the passageway outside, "I'm glad to get out o' there."

Ogle took his overcoat and cap from a hook on the wall. "I don't care for any coffee," he said. "I'm going out on deck."

Tinker found his own coat and cap. "I'll go with you," he said. "A little fresh air'll do me more good than all the coffee in the world. I sat up kind of late last night, and I ate too many of those hazlenuts and Saratoga chips they keep up there in the smoking-room. It's dangerous for a man to change off from a home diet all at once like that. I'm glad you suggested the open air instead of coffee, Mr. Ogle."

Thus, companionably, he emerged upon the deck beside the annoyed playwright, who saw no immediate means of avoiding his society. "The man seems to believe we belong to the same club," Ogle thought indignantly; and in truth some such conception was