“Hello!” said the battered one.

“Hello indeed!” said Jimmy courteously.  “In what way can I brighten your life?”

The grin faded from the other’s face.  He looked puzzled.

“You’re Jimmy Crocker, ain’t you?”

“No.  My name chances to be Algernon Bayliss.”

Jerry Mitchell reddened.

“’Scuse me.  My mistake.”

He was moving off, but Jimmy stopped him.  Parting from Ann had left a large gap in his life, and he craved human society.

“I know you now,” he said.  “You’re Jerry Mitchell.  I saw you fight Kid Burke four years ago in London.”

The grin returned to the pugilist’s face, wider than ever.  He beamed with gratification.

“Gee!  Think of that!  I’ve quit since then.  I’m working for an old guy named Pett.  Funny thing, he’s Jimmy Crocker’s uncle that I mistook you for.  Say, you’re a dead ringer for that guy!  I could have sworn it was him when you bumped into me.  Say, are you doing anything?”

“Nothing in particular.”

“Come and have a yarn.  There’s a place I know just round by here.”

“Delighted.”

They made their way to the place.

“What’s yours?” said Jerry Mitchell.  “I’m on the wagon myself,” he said apologetically.

“So am I,” said Jimmy.  “It’s the only way.  No sense in always drinking and making a disgraceful exhibition of yourself in public!”

Jerry Mitchell received this homily in silence.  It disposed definitely of the lurking doubt in his mind as to the possibility of this man really being Jimmy Crocker.  Though outwardly convinced by the other’s denial, he had not been able to rid himself till now of a nebulous suspicion.  But this convinced him.  Jimmy Crocker would never have said a thing like that nor would have refused the offer of alcohol.  He fell into pleasant conversation with him.  His mind eased.

CHAPTER IX

MRS. PETT IS SHOCKED

At five o’clock in the afternoon some ten days after her return to America, Mrs. Pett was at home to her friends in the house on Riverside Drive.  The proceedings were on a scale that amounted to a reception, for they were not only a sort of official notification to New York that one of its most prominent hostesses was once more in its midst, but were also designed to entertain and impress Mr. Hammond Chester, Ann’s father, who had been spending a couple of days in the metropolis preparatory to departing for South America on one of his frequent trips.  He was very fond of Ann in his curious, detached way, though he never ceased in his private heart to consider it injudicious of her not to have been born a boy, and he always took in New York for a day or two on his way from one wild and lonely spot to another, if he could manage it.