“He was surprised to see me—didn’t understand it; he’d never met me in the social line. But it was America where anything might happen, even a man come to see you that you hadn’t been introduced to.” The speaker paused to move one of his knees; he lifted it with his hands. “I didn’t waste any time cutting brush before Mr. Westridge. I went right in to what I had to say. My line was: friend of the girl’s father, blunt old Western business man, no manners, and don’t give a cuss for you. Easy stuff, you see, and the kind of thing your Englishman expects in the ‘States.’ “He was mighty formal, as you’d say, but he didn’t throw any stuttering into Alibi Al. I set down, just as if the place belonged to me, and I waved a hand at him. I said to myself, ‘You’re a little piker; line up and take what’s coming to you.’ “But what I said out loud was like this, “‘Carrots has got a little bunch of stuff that’s goin’ to be wiped out if it ain’t covered.’ “That was her nickname among the youngsters, because her blue-black hair in the sun had a heavenly copper glint. “He looked mixed up. “‘What, precisely, do you mean?’ he says. “I didn’t pay any attention to him. I went on just as if he hadn’t said a word. “‘Women’s got no sense about business—she’s agoin’ to lose it?’ “‘Lose what?’ he says. “‘Rotten the way they bring girls up,’ I says, the same as if he hadn’t spoke. ‘Here’s this steel bunch beating the stuff down; her broker wires for somethin’ to cover it, an’ she sticks the telegram up against the lookin’-glass so she’ll remember to write to him next week—can you beat it?’ “I saw everything that was goin’ through him, same as if you’d rolled it out on the picture reel. “The ‘old friend, no manners, darn the difference’ stuff had hooked him. And there were two other hooks: this girl had some property that he didn’t know of, and the friends of the family, like me, was a-coming to him about it. “Because what? “Because it was settled stuff on our side that she was goin’ to take his arm up the church aisle. It was the first straight dope he’d had, an’ it bucked him, same as it bucked me to know that she was dangling him with no word passed. “He set up now pleasant as you please. “‘Ah—er, yes,’ he says; he hadn’t got the name I was playing under. “I bellowed at him, an’ he mighty near jumped. “‘Johnson!’ I said. ‘Alonzo Johnson, Kansas City!’ “‘Quite so, Mr. Johnson,’ he says, quick, same as you’d apologize, ‘there’s some business affair to discuss, I fauncy?’