y dear Mr. Meeker, I am in a hurry and cannot waste the
day waiting for you to talk. I am sorry for what has happened here, but I
trust that you are not incapacitated. Anyway, I do not think there is
anything you can tell me about the _Kut Sang_ that I do not already
know."

"Oh, but there is," he protested, holding up his hand and eyeing me
craftily. "I was seeking you to tell you when we fell upon each other so
unceremoniously. It is quite--"

"I suppose you want to tell me that the sailing has been delayed. I know
all about that--she sails in the morning."

"Sails in the morning!" he exclaimed, pretending surprise, but being
puzzled about something. "Does she?"

There was guile in that last question, and when he asked it I knew it was
he or some one acting for him who had attempted to mislead me about the
time of the vessel's departure. I saw a chance to trap him, and asked:

"Was that what you wanted to tell me?"

He parried it, and while he fumbled in his pockets for something, a trick
to gain time, he was thinking hard and fast.

I had him against the ropes, so to speak, and he knew it, for what he did
want to find out was whether I knew the telephone message to be
fraudulent. If I did, he wanted to take credit for setting me right; and
if I didn't, he wanted me to miss the _Kut Sang_. So, knowing his game, I
came to the conclusion that I must not press him too hard and so make him
suspicious that I knew his true character--his character, that is, as a
decidedly suspicious person.

"I was told that she sails in the morning, but it was some mistake," I
told him, as if I had not found anything peculiar in the error and was
not the least disturbed about it.

"Oh, no! Nothing in that!" he cried, unable to conceal his delight over
my admission of how much I knew. "For a minute I thought there might be
something in the story, after all, when I heard you say she was delayed.
That is just what I was going to tell you--there is no truth in that
report. Some person, who I cannot say, also gave me misinformation
regarding the _Kut Sang_. I feared that you might have had the same
experience. That, however, is only a part of it--what I want to tell you
is that it is now possible to buy a ticket in the _Kut Sang_."

"I already have my ticket," I said. "So we will be fellow-passengers, and
I hope you will pardon my throwing you down the stairs; but I was running
after a beggar or a thief."

"Indeed! Do you know the