"I will. My throat is a little raw. There was considerable dust in the studio to-day. I like work in the open air best." "So do I," confessed Alice. "Now, Daddy, you must stop talking," and she shook her finger at him. "You listen--we'll talk." "You mean _you_ will," laughed Ruth, for Alice generally did her own, and part of Ruth's share also. They walked on, talking at intervals of the incident of the spy and again of the prospective trip to the West. "Do you know just where we are going, Russ?" asked Ruth, as she kept pace with him. "Not exactly," he replied, stealing a glance at the girl beside him, for she was a picture fair to look upon with her almost golden hair blown about her face by the light breeze, while her blue eyes looked into the more sober gray ones of Russ. "I believe Mr. Pertell intends to go to several places, so as to get varied views. I know we are to go to a ranch, for one thing." "Fine!" exclaimed Alice, with almost boyish enthusiasm, as she walked at the side of Paul. "Daddy, do you want me to become a cowgirl?" she asked, turning to Mr. DeVere, who was in the rear. "I guess if you wanted to be one, you would whether I wanted you to or not," he replied, with an indulgent smile. "You have a way with you!" "Hasn't she, though!" agreed Paul. They reached the apartment house where the DeVeres and Russ lived. Paul came in for a little while, but declined an invitation to stay to tea. "I've got quite a piece of work on for to-morrow," he said, as he left. "What is it?" asked Alice. "There's to be a new play, 'An Inventor's Troubles,' and one of the inventions is a sort of rope fire escape. There's a rope, coiled in a metal case. You take it to your hotel room with you, and in case of fire you fasten the case to the window casing, grab one end of the rope, and jump. The rope is supposed to pay out slowly, by means of friction pulleys, and you come safely to the ground." "Did you invent that?" asked Ruth, who had not heard all that was said. "Oh, no, some fellow did, and the city authorities are going to give him a chance to demonstrate it before they will recommend it to hotel proprietors. And I'm to be the 'goat,' if you will allow me to say so." "How?" asked Alice. "I'm to come down on the rope from the tenth story of some building. This will serve as the city test, and at the same time Mr. Pertell has fixed up a story in which the fire escape scene figures. I've got to study up a little bit before to-morrow." "It--it isn't dangerous; is it?" asked Alice, and she rather faltered over the words. "Not if the thing works," replied Paul, with a shrug of his shoulders. "That is, if the rope doesn't break, or pay out so fast that I hit the pavement with a bump." "Oh, is it as dangerous as that?" exclaimed Alice, looking at Paul intently. "Don't worry," and he smiled. "I guess the apparatus has been tested before. I'm getting used to risks in this business." "What time to-morrow is it?" queried Ruth.