The Dude Wrangler | Page 2

have come in on the evening train while he was at the moving pictures, and retired immediately. Very likely she was, as Mr. Penrose asserted, some acrimonious spinster, but, at any rate, she had temporarily silenced the rich old tyrant of whom all the hotel stood in awe.
A second time the ripping sound of yard after yard of calico being viciously torn broke the night's stillness and, grinning, Wallie waited to hear what the woman next door was going to do about it. But only a stranger would have hoped to do anything about it, since to prevent Mr. Penrose from snoring was a task only a little less hopeless than that of stopping the roar of the ocean. Guests whom it annoyed had either to move or get used to it. Sometimes they did the one and sometimes the other, but always Mr. Penrose, who was the subject of a hundred complaints a summer, snored on victoriously. The woman next door, of course, could not know this, so no doubt she had a mistaken notion that she might either break the old gentleman of his habit or have him banished to an isolated quarter.
Wallie had not long to wait, for shortly after Mr. Penrose started again the tattoo on the door was repeated.
In response to a snarl that might have come from a menagerie, she advised him curtly:
"You're at it again!"
Another angry colloquy followed, and once more Mr. Penrose was forced to subside for the want of an adequate answer.
All the rest of the night the battle continued at intervals, and by morning not only Wallie but the entire corridor was interested in the occupant of the room adjoining his.
Wallie was in the office when the door of the elevator opened with a clang and Mr. Penrose sprang out of it like a starved lion about to hurl himself upon a Christian martyr. While his jaws did not drip saliva, the thin nostrils of his bothersome nose quivered with eagerness and anger.
"I've been coming here for twenty-eight years, haven't I?" he demanded.
"Twenty-eight this summer," Mr. Cone replied, soothingly.
"In that time I never have put in such a night as last night!"
"Dear me!" The proprietor seemed genuinely disturbed by the information.
"I could not sleep--I have not closed my eyes--for the battering on my door of the female in the room adjoining!"
"You astonish me! Let me see----" Mr. Cone whirled the register around and looked at it. He read aloud:
"Helene Spenceley--Prouty, Wyoming."
Mr. Cone lowered his voice discreetly:
"What was her explanation?"
"She accused me of snoring!" declared Mr. Penrose, furiously. "I heard the clock strike every hour until morning! Not a wink have I slept--not a wink, Mr. Cone!"
"We can arrange this satisfactorily, Mr. Penrose," Mr. Cone smiled conciliatingly. "I have no doubt that Miss--er--Spenceley will gladly change her room if I ask her. I shall place one equally good at her disposal---- Ah, I presume this is she--let me introduce you."
Although he would not admit it, Mr. Penrose was quite as astonished as Wallie at the appearance of the person who stepped from the elevator and walked to the desk briskly. She was young and good looking and wore suitable clothes that fitted her; also, while not aggressive, she had a self-reliant manner which proclaimed the fact that she was accustomed to looking after her own interests. While she was as far removed as possible from the person Mr. Penrose had expected to see, still she was the "female" who had "sassed" him as he had not been "sassed" since he could remember, and he eyed her belligerently as he curtly acknowledged the introduction.
"Mr. Penrose, one of our oldest guests in point of residence, tells me that you have had some little--er--difference----" began Mr. Cone, affably.
"I had a hellish night!" Mr. Penrose interrupted, savagely. "I hope never to put in such another."
"I join you in that," replied Miss Spenceley, calmly. "I've never heard any one snore so horribly--I'd know your snore among a thousand."
"Never mind--we can adjust this matter amicably, I will change your room to-day, Miss Spenceley," Mr. Cone interposed, hastily. "It hasn't quite the view, but the furnishings are more luxurious."
"But I don't want to change," Miss Spenceley coolly replied. "It suits me perfectly."
"I came for quiet and I can't stand that hammering," declared Mr. Penrose, glaring at her.
"So did I--my nerves--and your snoring bothers me. But perhaps," with aggravating sweetness, "I can break you of the habit."
"I wouldn't lose another night's sleep for a thousand dollars!"
"It will be cheaper to change your room, for I don't mean to change mine."
The millionaire turned to the proprietor. "Either this person goes or I do--that's my ultimatum!"
"I will not be bullied in any such fashion, and I can't very well be put out forcibly, can I?" and Miss Spenceley smiled at both