"I'm sorry, Mr. O'Mally, but I've left all my shopping for this afternoon. I think Becky Tietelbaum could do them for you. I will tell her to be careful." "Oh, all right." O'Mally bounced out with a reflection of Ardessa's disdainful expression on his face. Saturday afternoon was always a half-holiday, to be sure, but since she had weeks of freedom when he was away--However-- At two o'clock Becky Tietelbaum appeared at his door, clad in the sober office suit which Miss Devine insisted she should wear, her note-book in her hand, and so frightened that her fingers were cold and her lips were pale. She had never taken dictation from the editor before. It was a great and terrifying occasion. "Sit down," he said encouragingly. He began dictating while he shook from his bag the manuscripts he had snatched away from the amazed English author that morning. Presently he looked up. "Do I go too fast?" "No, sir," Becky found strength to say. At the end of an hour he told her to go and type as many of the letters as she could while he went over the bunch of stuff he had torn from the Englishman. He was with the Hindu detective in an opium den in Shanghai when Becky returned and placed a pile of papers on his desk. "How many?" he asked, without looking up. "All you gave me, sir." "All, so soon? Wait a minute and let me see how many mistakes." He went over the letters rapidly, signing them as he read. "They seem to be all right. I thought you were the girl that made so many mistakes." Rebecca was never too frightened to vindicate herself. "Mr. O'Mally, sir, I don't make mistakes with letters. It's only copying the articles that have so many long words, and when the writing isn't plain, like Mr. Gerrard's. I never make many mistakes with Mr. Johnson's articles, or with yours I don't." O'Mally wheeled round in his chair, looked with curiosity at her long, tense face, her black eyes, and straight brows. "Oh, so you sometimes copy articles, do you? How does that happen?" "Yes, sir. Always Miss Devine gives me the articles to do. It's good practice for me." "I see." O'Mally shrugged his shoulders. He was thinking that he could get a rise out of the whole American public any day easier than he could get a rise out of Ardessa. "What editorials of mine have you copied lately, for instance?" Rebecca blazed out at him, reciting rapidly: "Oh, 'A Word about the Rosenbaums,' 'Useless Navy-Yards,' 'Who Killed Cock Robin'--" "Wait a minute." O'Mally checked her flow. "What was that one about--Cock Robin?" "It was all about why the secretary of the interior dismissed--" "All right, all right. Copy those letters, and put them down the chute as you go out. Come in here for a minute on Monday morning."