They separated and fled toward the kitchen, giggling.
Kirkpatrick caught Tiny by the elbows. "What's the matter with you girls?
Dancing out here by yourselves, when there's a roomful of lonesome men on
the other side of the partition! Introduce me to your friends, Tiny."
The girls, still laughing, were trying to escape. Tiny looked alarmed.
"Mrs. Gardener would n't like it," she protested. "She'd be awful mad if
you was to come out here and dance with us."
"Mrs. Gardener's in Omaha, girl. Now, you're Lena, are you?--and you're
Tony and you're Mary. Have I got you all straight?"
O'Reilly and the others began to pile the chairs on the tables. Johnnie
Gardener ran in from the office.
"Easy, boys, easy!" he entreated them. "You'll wake the cook, and there'll
be the devil to pay for me. She won't hear the music, but she'll be down
the minute anything's moved in the dining-room."
"Oh, what do you care, Johnnie? Fire the cook and wire Molly to bring
another. Come along, nobody'll tell tales."
Johnnie shook his head. "'S a fact, boys," he said confidentially. "If I
take a drink in Black Hawk, Molly knows it in Omaha!"
His guests laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "Oh, we'll make it all
right with Molly. Get your back up, Johnnie."
Molly was Mrs. Gardener's name, of course. "Molly Bawn" was painted in
large blue letters on the glossy white side of the hotel bus, and "Molly"
was engraved inside Johnnie's ring and on his watch-case--doubtless on his
heart, too.
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