But, say, inside of five minutes he'd been wiped off the slate, and them two girls was plannin' their hot-food campaign as busy and excited as if it was Marion's church weddin' they were doping out. It's after midnight before they breaks away, too. You know Vee, though. She ain't one to start things and then quit. She's a stayer. And some grand little hustler, too. By Monday mornin' the Harbor Hills Community Kitchen Co. was a going concern. And before the week was out they had more'n forty families on the standin' order list, with new squads of soup scorchers bein' fired every day. What got a gasp out of me was the first time I gets sight of Marion Gray in her working rig. Nothing old-maidish about that costume. Not so you'd notice. She's gone the limit--khaki riding pants, leather leggins and a zippy cloth cap cut on the overseas pattern. None of them Women's Motor Corps girls had anything on her. And maybe she ain't some picture, too, as she jumps in behind the wheel of the truck and steps on the gas pedal! Also, I was some jarred to learn that the enterprise was a payin' one almost from the start. Folks was just tickled to death with havin' perfectly good meals, well cooked, well seasoned and pipin' hot, set down at their back doors prompt every day, with no fractious fryin'-pan pirates growlin' around the kitchens, and no local food profiteers soakin' 'em with big weekly bills. This has been goin' on a month, when one day as I comes home Vee greets me with a flyin' tackle. "Oh, Torchy!" she squeals, "what do you think has happened?" "I know," says I. "Baby's cut a tooth." "No," says she. "It's--it's about Marion." "Oh!" says I. "She ain't bumped somebody with the truck, has she?" "How absurd!" says Vee. "But, listen, Captain Ellery Prescott has come back." "What! The old favorite?" says I. "But I thought he was over with Pershing?" "Not yet," says Vee. "He has been out at some Western camp training recruits all this time. But now he has his orders. He is to sail very soon. And he's seen Marion." "Has he?" said I. "Did it give him a jolt, or what?" Vee giggles and pulls my head down so she can whisper in my ear. "He thought her perfectly stunning, as she is, of course. And they're to be married day after tomorrow." "Z-z-z-zing!" says I. "That puts a crimp in the ready-made dinner business, I expect." "Not at all," says Vee. "Until he comes back, after the war, Marion is going to carry on." "Anyway," says I, "it ends 'Puffy' Biggies as an impendin' tragedy, don't it? And I expect that's worth while, too." CHAPTER II OLD HICKORY BATS UP ONE