"Thank you! You might just as well wish a brick on me!"

Kitty left the office at a quarter of six. The phrase kept running
through her head - the drums of jeopardy. A little shiver ran up
her spine. Money, love, tragedy, death! This terrible and wonderful
old world, of which she had seen little else than city streets,
suddenly exhibited wide vistas. She knew now why she had begun to
save - travel. Just as soon as she had a thousand she would go
somewhere. A great longing to hear native drums in the night.

Even as the wish entered her mind a new sound entered her ears. The
Subway car wheels began to beat - tumpitum-tump! tumpitum-tump!
Fudge! She opened her evening paper and scanned the fashions, the
dramatic news, and the comics. Being a woman she read the world
news last. On the front page she saw a queer story, dated at Albany:
Mysterious guests at a hotel; how they had fought and fled in the
early morning. There had been left behind a case with foreign orders
incrusted with several thousand dollars' worth of gems. Bolsheviki,
said the police; just as they said auto bandits a few years ago when
confronted with something they could not understand. The orders had
been turned over to the Federal authorities from whom it was learned
that they were all royal and demi-royal. Neither of the two guests
had returned up to noon, and one had fled, leaving even his hat and
coat. But there was nothing to indicate his identity.

"Loot!" murmured Kitty. "All the scum in the world rising to the
top" - quoting Cutty. "Poor things!" as she thought of the gentle
ladies who had died horribly in bedrooms and cellars.

Kitty was beginning to cast about for more congenial quarters.