ast in the world--not as much as you do," was the cool
answer. "I happened to see those candlesticks in the window of Singa
Phut's shop the other day, and I made up my mind to buy them when I had
a chance. Now, I'm afraid I won't. But how did it happen?"

"Oh, well, there isn't much of a story to it," and Donovan's voice
showed his disappointment. "Phut--I don't know whether that's his
first or his last name--anyhow, he had a partner named Shere Ali. No
one knows much about Ali, for he came here just recently. Anyhow, he
and Phut didn't get along very well it seems.

"Neighbors often heard 'em scrappin' a lot, and this afternoon they
went at it again hot and heavy. Then things quieted down, and nobody
heard anything more. Toward dark a man went in to buy a lamp. He
found the place without a light in it, stumbled over something on the
floor, and there was Ali's body, with the head busted in and this heavy
candlestick near it.

"He raised the howl right off, and Pinkus and I got there as soon as we
could. Of course Phut was gone. But we'll get him!"

"Then you think he did it?"

"Sure he did! Who else?"

"And the watch was in Ali's hand?"

"Sure! Held so tight we could hardly get it out. In fact it was so
tight that he's cut his palm grabbin' hold of it. Maybe the fight was
about who owned the watch, for the Dagos talked in their foreign lingo
and none of the neighbors could tell what they were sayin'."

"I see. And the watch? Have you it?"

"Yes, it's here. Going yet, too. Hear it tick?" and Donovan held open
the door of his closet. From the place, in which hung odd coats, caps
and other garments, and from the shelf on which was a collection of
gruesome weapons, came an insistent ticking.

"That's the watch," announced the headquarters detective, reaching in
for it. "Going yet--see?" and he held it out to Colonel Ashley.

Somewhat to the surprise of Donovan the military detective accepted the
timepiece on his open palm, and so gingerly that it caused Donovan to
remark:

"You're not as squeamish as all that, are you? Just because it was in
a dead man's hand--and in a woman's?"

"Oh, not at all," was the quick answer. "But, as a matter of fact
these East Indians are often carriers of bubonic plague, you know, and
it's very contagious. Of course neither Shere Ali nor Singa Phut may
have had the germs about them, but I am a bit squeamish when it comes
to contagious diseases of that nat