"Oh--h!" gasped the author of the delicacy. "Stop before it is too late!" Glass held his hungry employer at a distance, striving to make known by a wink the necessity of his act. "There is absolutely nothing in my cake to injure any one," Helen objected loyally, with lifted chin; whereupon the corpulent trainer turned to her and said: "Cake would crab any athlete. Cake and gals is the limit." "Really! I had no idea I was the least bit dangerous." Miss Blake, turning to her host, smiled frigidly. "I'm so sorry I intruded." "Now don't say that!" Speed strove to detain her. "Please don't be offended--I just _have_ to train!" "Of course. And will you pardon me for interrupting your routine? You see, I had no idea I wasn't wanted." "But you are, and I _do_ want you! I--" "Good-bye!" She nodded pleasantly at the door, and left her lover staring after her. When she had gone, he cried, in a trembling voice: "You're a fine yap, you are! She got up early to do something nice for me, and you insulted her! You wouldn't even let me sit and hold her hand!" "No palm-readin'." Speed turned to behold his trainer ravenously devouring the cake, and dashed to its rescue. "It's heavier than a frog full of buckshot. You won't like it, Cul." "It's perfectly delicious!" came the choking answer. "Then get back of them curtains. Willie'd shoot on sight." All that morning the prisoner idled about the premises, followed at a distance by his guard. Wherever he went he seemed to see the sun flash defiance from the polished surface of those lenses, and while he was allowed a certain liberty, he knew full well that this espionage would never cease, night or day, until--what? He could not bear to read the future; anything seemed possible. Time and again he cursed that spirit of braggadocio, that thoughtless lack of moral scruple, which had led him into this predicament. He vowed that he was done with false pretences; henceforth the strictest probity should be his. No more false poses. Praise won by dissimulation and deceit was empty, anyhow, and did he escape this once, henceforth the world should know J. Wallingford Speed for what he was--an average individual, with no uncommon gifts of mind or body, courage or ability. Yet it was small comfort to realize that he was getting his just deserts, and it likewise availed little to anathematize Fresno as the cause of his misfortune.