Some of the men were mending their clothes, others were washing out collars and handkerchiefs. What element of home life there was in the circus experience Andy witnessed in his brief stroll.
He was on time to the minute at the Empire Hotel. A bell-boy showed him up to the ladies' parlor on the second floor.
Miss Stella Starr was listening to some members of the circus minstrel show trying over some new airs on the piano.
The moment she saw him she came forward with hand extended and a welcome smile on her kindly face.
She made Andy feel at home at once. She insisted on hearing all the details of his experience since the evening he had saved her from disaster during the wind storm.
"I think now just as I thought night before last, Andy," she said finally. "You do not owe much of duty to that aunt of yours. I think I would fight pretty hard to get away, in your place, with the reform school staring me in the face. Well, Andy, I have spoken to Mr. Harding."
"Can—can I join?" asked Andy, with a good deal of anxiety.
"Yes, Andy. I had a long talk with him about you, and—here he is now."
A brisk-moving, keen-faced man of about fifty entered the parlor just then.
"Mr. Harding, this is the boy, Andy Wildwood, I told you about," said
Miss Starr.