s is
just spite work to get even--a crazy idea, but there may be a germ of
truth in it after all."

"He has a wonderful place not far out of Miami--they all say it's a
regular palace, where he entertains lavishly and yet not at any time
have they known of a raid staged on his castle, as some call the
rambling stone building that shelters a curio collection equal to any in
the art museums of New York City."

"Every little while Oswald Kearns disappears and no one seems to know
his whereabouts--some guess he's fond of tarpon fishing and goes out
with a pal to indulge in the sport, his destination being kept secret so
that the common herd can't swarm about the fishing grounds and annoy
him; then another lot say he is not the bachelor he makes out, but has a
little cozy home somewhere else with a wife who detests society and
that's where he goes when away from the Miami paradise."

"Both of these guesses are wide of the truth--what they told me up at
the Treasury Department set me thinking and I found some papers aboard
that sloop we captured that opened up a startling line of action that
might be unbelievable if it were any other man than the eccentric Oswald
Kearns."

"By the way, Perk, after I'd committed the contents of those papers to
memory I sent them by registered mail to Headquarters because, you see,
something might happen to us before we get to the end of this journey
and I reckoned the Department would like to be able to take advantage of
our discoveries."

"You did jest right there, partner," Perk told him--he was sitting there
drinking it all in with the utmost eagerness. "It sure would be a pity
if we kicked off an' Uncle Sam couldn't profit by what work we'd done.
But what you've already told me 'bout this here queer guy gets my goat,
like as not there never was a feller as full o' kinks as he is."

"I'm pretty certain of that, partner," Jack assured him, "there's no
doubt about his having been gassed in the war and that might account for
his actions--he's dippy along certain lines and he finds this way of
defying the Government gives him the one big thrill he wants. It's
almost incredible, I own up, but I believe we're going to prove it
before we quit.

"Some men you know find this excitement in driving a speeding car along
the beach up at Daytona at a hundred miles and more an hour, others go
out and hunt tigers in India, lions and elephants in wildest Africa, but
with this wealthy sportsman the c