her thumb toward his retreating figure.

"Friend of yours?" she asked.

"He might have a worse friend," replied the Lizard non-committally.

"What's his graft?" asked the girl.

"He ain't got none except being on the square. It's funny," the Lizard

philosophized, "but here's me with a bank roll that would choke a horse,

and you probably with a stocking full of dough, and I'll bet all the

money I ever had or ever expect to have if one of us could change places

with that poor simp we'd do it."

"He is a square guy, isn't he?" said the girl. "You can almost tell it

by looking at him. How did you come to know him?"

"Oh, that's a long story," said the Lizard. "We room at the same place,

but I knew him before that."

"On Indiana near Eighteenth?" asked the girl.

"How the hell did you know?" he queried.

"I know a lot of things I ain't supposed to know," replied she.

"You're a wise guy, all right, Eva, and one thing I like about you is

that you don't let anything you know hurt you."

And then, after a pause: "I like him," she said. "What's his name?"

The Lizard eyed her for a moment.

"Don't you get to liking him too much," he said. "That bird's the class.

He ain't for any little--"

"Cut it!" exclaimed the girl. "I'm as good as you are and a damn

straighter. What I get I earn, and I don't steal it."

The Lizard grinned. "I guess you're right at that; but don't try to

pull him down any lower than he is. He is coming up again some day to

where he belongs."

"I ain't going to try to pull him down," said the girl. "And anyhow,

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