Perry was fascinated.

“What noise does a camel make?”

“What?” asked Mrs. Nolak as her face emerged, somewhat smudgy.  “Oh, what noise?  Why, he sorta brays.”

“Lemme see it in a mirror.”

Before a wide mirror Perry tried on the head and turned from side to side appraisingly.  In the dim light the effect was distinctly pleasing.  The camel’s face was a study in pessimism, decorated with numerous abrasions, and it must be admitted that his coat was in that state of general negligence peculiar to camels—­in fact, he needed to be cleaned and pressed—­but distinctive he certainly was.  He was majestic.  He would have attracted attention in any gathering if only by his melancholy cast of feature and the look of pensive hunger lurking round his shadowy eyes.

“You see you have to have two people,” said Mrs. Nolak again.

Perry tentatively gathered up the body and legs and wrapped them about him, tying the hind legs as a girdle round his waist.  The effect on the whole was bad.  It was even irreverent—­like one of those medieval pictures of a monk changed into a beast by the ministrations of Satan.  At the very best the ensemble resembled a humpbacked cow sitting on her haunches among blankets.

“Don’t look like anything at all,” objected Perry gloomily.

“No,” said Mrs. Nolak; “you see you got to have two people.”

A solution flashed upon Perry.

“You got a date to-night?”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly—­”

“Oh, come on,” said Perry encouragingly.  “Sure you can!  Here!  Be a good sport and climb into these hind legs.”

With difficulty he located them and extended their yawning depths ingratiatingly.  But Mrs. Nolak seemed loath.  She backed perversely away.

“Oh, no—­”

“C’m on!  Why, you can be the front if you want to.  Or we’ll flip a coin.”

“Oh, no—­”

“Make it worth your while.”

Mrs. Nolak set her lips firmly together.

“Now you just stop!” she said with no coyness implied.  “None of the gentlemen ever acted up this way before.  My husband—­”

“You got a husband?” demanded Perry.  “Where is he?”

“He’s home.”

“Wha’s telephone number?”

After considerable parley he obtained the telephone number pertaining to the Nolak penates and got into communication with that small, weary voice he had heard once before that day.  But Mr. Nolak, though taken off his guard and somewhat confused by Perry’s brilliant flow of logic, stuck staunchly to his point.  He refused firmly but with dignity to help out Mr. Parkhurst in the capacity of back part of a camel.