While the two young men stood eyeing each other Darrin noted that the young woman’s annoyer was somewhat taller than himself, broader of shoulder and deeper of chest.  He had the same confidence of athletic poise that Dave himself displayed.  In a resort to force, it looked as though the stranger would have the better of it.

Yet this stranger seemed suddenly deprived of much of his assurance.  Plainly, there was some good reason why he did not wish to fight on this side street so close to Broadway.

“Madam,” inquired Darrin, half turning, “may I have the pleasure of escorting you to your friends?”

“If you will call a taxi-----” she began, eagerly.

At that moment a fareless taxicab turned the corner of Broadway and came slowly down the street.

“Hold on, chauffeur!” cried Darrin, in a voice of command.  Then, as the cab stopped at the curb, Dave turned his back upon the tormentor for a moment, while he assisted the young woman into the taxicab.

“Do you feel satisfied to go without escort,” asked Darrin, “or may I offer my services in seeing you safely to your home?”

“I shall be all right now,” replied the young woman, the troubled look in her lustrous brown eyes vanishing as she favored her unknown defender with a smile.  “If the driver will stop, two blocks from here, I will direct him where to take me.”

“Step aside, boy!” ordered the unknown man, as he tried to brush Dave away and enter the cab.

It was no time for gentle measures.  Ensign Darrin’s right fist landed heavily on the face of the stranger, sending him prone to the sidewalk.

At a wave of Dave’s hand the chauffeur started away.  Scenting trouble, the chauffeur drove as fast as he could down the side street, making the round of the block, then heading into Broadway and going uptown, for the young woman had called out her destination.

As for the stranger whom Dave had knocked down, the fellow was on his feet like a flash.  Ignoring Darrin, he tried to dash down the side street after the taxicab.

“Step back!” ordered Dave, catching hold of the fellow, and swinging him around.  “You’re not going to follow.”

“I must have the number of that taxicab,” cried the stranger, desperately.

“Too late,” smiled Dave, as he saw the taxicab turn the next corner.  “You won’t learn the number.  I happened to see it, though,” he added incautiously.

“Give it to me, then,” commanded the other.  “I’ll overlook what you’ve done if you truthfully give me the number of that taxicab.  Find that girl I must, and as early as possible.  Though I know her well, and her family, too, I do not know where to look for them in New York.”

Dave, without a word, turned as though to walk toward Broadway.

“Give me that taxi’s number,” insisted the stranger.

“I won’t,” Dave returned, flatly.

“Give me that number, or-----”

“Or what?” drawled Darrin halting and glancing contemptuously at the furious face before him.