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Contents (57)
  1. THE TRIMMED LAMP
  2. * * *
  3. O. HENRY
  4. *
  5. Contents
  6. *
  7. The Trimmed Lamp
  8. *
  9. A Madison Square Arabian Night
  10. *
  11. The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball
  12. *
  13. The Pendulum
  14. *
  15. Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen
  16. *
  17. The Assessor of Success
  18. *
  19. The Buyer from Cactus City
  20. *
  21. The Badge of Policeman O'Roon
  22. *
  23. Brickdust Row
  24. *
  25. The Making of a New Yorker
  26. *
  27. Vanity and Some Sables
  28. *
  29. The Social Triangle
  30. *
  31. The Purple Dress
  32. *
  33. The Foreign Policy of Company 99
  34. *
  35. The Lost Blend
  36. *
  37. A Harlem Tragedy
  38. *
  39. "The Guilty Party"
  40. *
  41. According to Their Lights
  42. *
  43. A Midsummer Knight's Dream
  44. *
  45. The Last Leaf
  46. *
  47. The Count and the Wedding Guest
  48. *
  49. The Country of Elusion
  50. *
  51. The Ferry of Unfulfilment
  52. *
  53. The Tale of a Tainted Tenner
  54. *
  55. Elsie in New York
  56. *
  57. * * *

"To h—Harlem with you," cried the Kid, angrily. "You know I've cut out that sort of thing, Ransom. I bought them sables yesterday at—"

The Kid stopped short.

"I know you've been working straight lately," said Ransom. "I'll give you every chance. I'll go with you where you say you bought the furs and investigate. The lady can wear 'em along with us and nobody'll be on. That's fair, Brady."

"Come on," agreed the Kid, hotly. And then he stopped suddenly in his tracks and looked with an odd smile at Molly's distressed and anxious face.

"No use," he said, grimly. "They're the Hethcote sables, all right. You'll have to turn 'em over, Moll, but they ain't too good for you if they cost a million."

Molly, with anguish in her face, hung upon the Kid's arm.

"Oh, Kiddy, you've broke my heart," she said. "I was so proud of you—and now they'll do you—and where's our happiness gone?"

"Go home," said the Kid, wildly. "Come on, Ransom—take the furs. Let's get away from here. Wait a minute—I've a good mind to—no, I'll be d— if I can do it—run along, Moll—I'm ready, Ransom."

Around the corner of a lumber-yard came Policeman Kohen on his way to his beat along the river. The detective signed to him for assistance. Kohen joined the group. Ransom explained.

"Sure," said Kohen. "I hear about those saples dat vas stole. You say you have dem here?"

Policeman Kohen took the end of Molly's late scarf in his hands and looked at it closely.

"Once," he said, "I sold furs in Sixth avenue. Yes, dese are saples. Dey come from Alaska. Dis scarf is vort $12 and dis muff—"

"Biff!" came the palm of the Kid's powerful hand upon the policeman's mouth. Kohen staggered and rallied. Molly screamed. The detective threw himself upon Brady and with Kohen's aid got the nippers on his wrist.

"The scarf is vort $12 and the muff is vort $9," persisted the policeman. "Vot is dis talk about $1,000 saples?"

The Kid sat upon a pile of lumber and his face turned dark red.

"Correct, Solomonski!" he declared, viciously. "I paid $21.50 for the set. I'd rather have got six months and not have told it. Me, the swell guy that wouldn't look at anything cheap! I'm a plain bluffer. Moll—my salary couldn't spell sables in Russian."

Molly cast herself upon his neck.

"What do I care for all the sables and money in the world," she cried. "It's my Kiddy I want. Oh, you dear, stuck-up, crazy blockhead!"

"You can take dose nippers off," said Kohen to the detective. "Before I leaf de station de report come in dat de lady vind her saples—hanging in her wardrobe. Young man, I excuse you dat punch in my vace—dis von time."

Ransom handed Molly her furs. Her eyes were smiling upon the Kid. She wound the scarf and threw the end over her left shoulder with a duchess' grace.

"A gouple of young vools," said Policeman Kohen to Ransom; "come on away."