"Yep," he said impressively. "I"m Terrible Battling Epps. I"d rather fight than eat." He turned sternly to the gorilla. "Why are you "sguised? Wad did you do?"
"Why, you poor nut," put in the girl in the beads, "we"re going to the Pagan Rout."
"Sure, that"s it," chimed in Jake. "Goin" to the Pagan Row. Come on along, Terrible."
"Aw, I"m tired of Pagan Routs," said Mr. Epps loftily. But the suggestion speeded up the pumpings of his heart.
"Oh, do come!" urged the girl in the beads.
"Ain"t got no "sguise," said Mr. Epps. He was wavering.
"Aw, come on!" cried the gorilla, clapping him on the shoulder till his teeth rattled. "Proud to have you with us, Terrible. I know a live one when I see one. Come on along. You"ll see a lot of your friends there."
His friends? Tidbury thought of Martha.
"If I only had a "sguise----" he began.
"You can get one round at Steinbock"s, on Seventh Avenue," promptly informed the organ grinder-pirate. "That is," he added with sudden suspicion, "if you ain"t one of these here revnofficers."
"S-s-s-s-sh, Ed," cautioned Jake, the gorilla. "Do you want Terrible Battling Epps to take a poke at you?"
Tidbury had made up his mind.
"I"ll go," he announced.
"Good!" exclaimed the gorilla delightedly. "Atta boy! Glad to have a real N"Yawk sport with us. Meet you at Webber Hall, Terrible."
"Webber Hall? Wherezat?" inquired Tidbury as he sought to negotiate the door.
"Well," confessed the gorilla, "I dunno "zactly m"sef. Y"see, I"m from Kansas City m"sef. In the lid game, I am. Biggest firm west of the Mizzizippi. Last year we sold----"
"Aw, stop selling and tell Terrible how to get to Webber Hall," put in the girl in the beads; she appeared to be the gorilla"s wife.
"Well," said Jake, thoughtfully rubbing his fuzzy head, "far as I remember, you go out to the square and you go straight along till you get to the L and you turn to the right----"
"Left!" interjected the organ grinder-pirate.
"Right," repeated the gorilla firmly. "And then you turn down another street--no, you don"t--you go straight on till you see a dentist"s sign, a big gold tooth, with "Gee, it didn"t hurt a bit at Dr. B. Schmuck"s Parlors," painted on it, and you turn to your right----"
"Left," corrected the pirate-organ grinder sternly.
"Waz difference?" went on the gorilla blandly. "Well, as I was saying, you turn to the right or left and then you go along three or four blocks, and then you turn to your left----"
"Right, I tell you!" roared the man in velvet.
"Oh, well, you go along until you come to a corner and you turn it and go down a little bit, and there you are!"
"Where am I?" Mr. Epps, posing against the door, asked.
"Webber Hall," said Jake. "Pagan Row."
"Oh," said Mr. Epps.
"Didn"t you follow me?"
"Of course I followed you."
"Good. See you at the party, Terrible. You"re hot stuff."
"I"ll be there. G"night."
"G"night, Terrible, old scout."
--3
Mr. Epps emerged from Ye Amiable Oyster, walking with elaborate but difficult dignity. He had only a remote idea where he was, but he knew where he wanted to go--Steinbock"s on Seventh Avenue. So with a temerity quite foreign to him he stepped up briskly to the first pa.s.sing pedestrian and asked, "Say, frien", where"s Sebble Abloo?"
The man accosted puckered a puzzled brow.
"I don"t get you, frien"," he said.
"Sebble Abloo!" repeated Mr. Epps loudly, thinking the stranger"s hearing might be defective.
"What?"
"Sebble Abloo!" roared Mr. Epps.
The man shook his head as one giving up a conundrum.
"Sebble Abloo," repeated Mr. Epps at the top of his voice "Look." He held up his fingers and counted them off. "One, two, sree, four, fi", sizz, sebble. Sebble Abloo!"
"Oh, Seventh Avenue. Why didn"t you say so in the first place?"
"I did."
"I"m going that way. I"ll show you."
The stranger steered Tidbury through a rabbit warren of streets--the Greenwich Village streets never have made up their minds where they are going--and started him, with a gentle push, up Seventh Avenue.
Presently by some miracle Tidbury stumbled upon Steinbock"s, and pushed his way into a jumble of masks, wigs, helmets and a.s.sorted junk, till he approached a patriarch in a skullcap, hidden behind a Niagara of white beard.
""Lo, ole fel"," said Mr. Epps affably. "What are you "sguised as? Sandy Claws or a cough drop?"
"Did you wish something?" inquired the patriarch coldly.
"Sure," said Tidbury. "Gimme "sguise for Pagon Row."
"Cash in advance," said the patriarch. "What sort of costume?"