have time; the traffic officer has turned the right way now." And I
began explaining our remarkable system of traffic handling.

But he stopped me in the middle. "Why do we wish to cross the
street, when we have no place to go?"

"I have a place I wish to take you to," I said; "a friend I want you
to meet. Let us cross. "And while I was guiding him between the
automobiles, I was desperately trying to think how to back up my
lie. Who was there that would receive this incredible stranger, and
put him up for the night, and get him into proper clothes, and keep
him off the soap-box?

Truly, I was in an extraordinary position! What had I done to get
this stranger wished onto me? And how long was he going to stay with
me? I found myself recalling the plight of Mary who had a little
lamb!

Fate had me in its hands, and did not mean to consult me. We had
gone less than a block further when I heard a voice, "Hello! Billy!"
I turned. Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! Of all the thankless
encounters--Edgerton Rosythe, moving picture critic of the Western
City "Times." Precisely the most cynical, the most profane, the most
boisterous person in a cynical and profane and boisterous business!
And he had me here, in full daylight, with a figure just out of a
stained glass window in St. Bartholomew's Church!



VII