"Yes, he's an intelligent child, full of that sort of bright ideas. Well, now he has found that I am not all his fancy painted me, he wouldn't come away with me; and I want you to understudy me while the going is good. In the fifth reel, which will be released to-night after the household has retired to rest, you will be featured. It's got to be tonight, because it has just occurred to me that Ogden, knowing that Lord Wisbeach is a crook, may go to him with the same proposal that he made to me." "Lord Wisbeach a crook!" "Of the worst description. He is here to steal that explosive stuff of Willie Partridge's. But as I have blocked that play, he may turn his attention to Ogden." "But, Jimmy, if that fellow is a crook--how do you know he is?" "He told me so himself." "Well, then, why don't you expose him?" "Because in order to do so, Skinner my man, I should have to explain that I was really Jimmy Crocker, and the time is not yet ripe for that. To my thinking, the time will not be ripe till you have got safely away with Ogden Ford. I can then go to Ann and say 'I may have played you a rotten trick in the past, but I have done you a good turn now, so let's forget the past!' So you see that everything now depends on you, dad. I'm not asking you to do anything difficult. I'll go round to the boarding-house now and tell Jerry Mitchell about what we have arranged, and have him waiting outside here in a car. Then all you will have to do is to go to Ogden, play a short scene as Chicago Ed., escort him to the car, and then go back to bed and have a good sleep. Once Ogden thinks you are a professional kidnapper, you won't have any difficulty at all. Get it into your head that he wants to be kidnapped. Surely you can tackle this light and attractive job? Why, it will be a treat for you to do a bit of character acting once more!" Jimmy had struck the right note. His father's eyes began to gleam with excitement. The scent of the footlights seemed to dilate his nostrils. "I was always good at that rough-neck stuff," he murmured meditatively. "I used to eat it!" "Exactly," said Jimmy. "Look at it in the right way, and I am doing you a kindness in giving you this chance." Mr. Crocker rubbed his cheek with his forefinger. "You'd want me to make up for the part?" he asked wistfully. "Of course!" "You want me to do it to-night?" "At about two in the morning, I thought." "I'll do it, Jim!" Jimmy grasped his hand. "I knew I could rely on you, dad." Mr. Crocker was following a train of thought. "Dark wig . . . blue chin . . . heavy eyebrows . . . I guess I can't do better than my old Chicago Ed. make-up. Say, Jimmy, how am I to get to the kid?" "That'll be all right. You can stay in my room till the time comes to go to him. Use it as a dressing-room." "How am I to get him out of the house?" "Through this room. I'll tell Jerry to wait out on the side-street with the car from two o'clock on." Mr. Crocker considered these arrangements.