"Dearie, I hate to tell you, but I got bad news for you." Then, turning to him, she said, compassionately, "Say, hon', you tell her! I haven't got the heart." "Why," said the bandit, regretfully, "what she means is this: she's got a swell chance to go on tour with 'Kiss and Tell,' and she feels like she hadn't ought to turn it down. It's more her line than this kind of thing, you know." I counted ten to myself, slowly, and then I said: "Very well. I daresay you know of some girl who is a quick study and can get up in the part by Monday, with your help." She stared and then began to giggle. "Say, girlie, I'm the limit. Didn't I tell you? I _married_ the boy!" At my gasp she went on, confidentially, linking her arm in mine. "Yes, dearie. You see, it's like this. I gotter have somebody, anyhow, to look after luggage, and you know what this life is. A girl's gotter have protection." When they were gone I turned to look at BROTHER. I almost thought he was going to cry, and he began to cough, just as he does in the sketch. "Oh, please," I said, "don't keep doing that! We aren't rehearsing now." And he stopped and said, "That's just it, Miss Vail. I'm not rehearsing. It's--that's how it is with me. That's why I knew I could get by with the part. I thought if we got good bookings, why, I'd be fixed to take a good long rest, afterwards,--out on the desert or up in the snow. It isn't bad, yet. They tell me I've got a great chance." Then his chin quivered. "That's why it kind of hits me right where I live, having this thing go on the rocks." "It mustn't," I said. "It can't! We won't let it!" I knew it was only a miracle that could save us, in that breathlessly short time, but I have a vigorous belief in miracles. "There must be a man and a girl, somewhere----" Then the lean, silent brother of BROTHER spoke. "I don't suppose you'd give me a whack at it, would you? I've learned every word of the whole 'script, watching every day the way I have. I can do it. I can do it if you'll let me. I don't think that fellow ever had your idea of it. Look,--the part where THE HAWK tells her what a rotten deal he's always had, isn't this how you meant it?"--and he dropped into a chair, took a knee between his brown, lean hands, looked off into the empty theater for a moment--and then, Sally, he read the lines as I'd written them. Instantly, I was happier than I'd been since I tore the final page out of the typewriter, visualizing the thing as I meant it to be. "It's yours," I chortled in my joy. "You can have it on a silver salver!" "If only we can get a girl," BROTHER was worrying. "We ought to get one, easy. She needn't be so much of a looker." "And we'll cut the comedy and the dance," I said, thankfully.