"He does, Mr. Heath--he does," observed that gentleman, strolling at the same instant through the door and encircling his tiny bride-to-be with his arm. "Haven't I traveled half way across this big country of ours to marry her?"
"Oh, we're not going to be married yet, Hortie," demurred the girl trying to wrench herself free of the big fellow's hold.
"Certainly we are, my dear. Didn't you know that? I'm surprised how many things there are that you don't know," he went on teasingly. "I thought I explained exactly what brought me East. Didn't I tell you this morning I came to get married? I was perfectly serious. Dad gave me two months vacation with that understanding. I must either produce a wife when I get home or lose my job. He'll never give me another furlough if I don't."
"Looks to me as if you had Mr. Fuller's future prosperity in your hands, Sylvia," Heath said.
"She has. She can make or break me. A big responsibility, eh, little Sylvia?"
"I know it, Hortie," retorted the girl seriously.
"She is equal to it, Fuller--never fear," Stanley Heath asserted.
"I'm not doing any worrying," smiled Horatio. "I--"
The sentence was cut short by the radio's loudspeaker:
_The much sought Long Island gem thief was captured this morning at his lodgings in Jersey City. Harris Chalmers, alias Jimmie O'Hara, a paroled prisoner, was taken by the police at his room on K-- Street. A quantity of loot, together with firearms and the missing jewels were found concealed in the apartment. The man readily admitted the theft. He has a long prison record._
Then as if prompted by common impulse, the three on the piazza rushed indoors.
Elisha was sitting limply before the radio.
"Well, rather!" Horatio Fuller shouted with a triumphant wave of his hand.
"Ain't it the beateree?" exploded the astonished sheriff. "That sends the whole case up in the air. All that's needed now to make me out the darndest fool on God's earth is for Eleazer's young nephew-lawyer in New York, who's checking up Heath's story, to wire everything there is O.K. If he does, I'll go bury my head. There goes the telephone! That's him! That's Eleazer--I'll bet a hat."
"_Hello!--Yes, I heard it.--You ain't surprised? Wal, I am. I'm took off my feet.--Oh, your nephew wired, did he, an' everything's O.K.? That bein' the case, I reckon there's no more to be said. I feel like a shrimp. How do you feel?_----"