"Mountain City Hotel."
"Oh, up there, eh? Glad you got away safely. I heard that you were last seen eloping with Tim and my nag Bill. And—can you hear me?—Yes?—well, secretly I was tickled to death that you got away! This thing of votes for women—you understand! Glad you handed it out straight. Of course I can't say so out loud, but——"
"Thanks!" said the relieved Jimmy. "I'm sending Tim and Bill back in the morning. Also I'd like to give Tim an envelope with a ten dollar note in it to pay for the use of the rig if you'll accept it."
"S-s-s-h!" came back over the telephone. "Don't say a word! I'll not have it! You can pay the keep for the boy and horse up there. That's all I'll accept. That and a promise that you'll not give me away! It wouldn't do for me to let it be known that—you understand, Judge!"
And Jimmy left the telephone box in an extraordinary good humor and sauntered back to his coffee.
He insisted on inspecting the room that he had engaged for his guest, and extravagantly ordered a fire for it. He insisted on his guest retiring, but the guest, reduced to a state of adoration, rebelled and saw him off when the train pulled out from Mountain City at 11:30 that night.
Mr. James Gollop settled himself comfortably into a seat therein and emitted a great sigh of content.
"As the copy book used to say at school," he thought, "'Count that day lost whose low descending sun, views o'er thy work without some worthy person done.' And if in one place in his bailiwick I haven't fried that codfish Granger to a crisp, it's not because I haven't been industrious. I've been as busy as a horse with a wooden leg trying to win the Derby!"