I can see the end of it even now."

"Will the end of it come within a month?"

"Within a week."

"Perhaps," she said, "I could hasten the end to a day."

"No," he smiled, "I 'd rather you would n't. I 'd rather you would
prolong it if you could."

"Is that a riddle?"

"To you."

"Then I can't answer it for I never guessed one in my life."

So with his knuckles kneading the grass by his side, he made light of
it until she turned away from the subject to admire the blue seen
through the pine needles above their heads.

Soon he heard the distant low whistle of the engine which was coming
for them like a sheriff with a warrant.

He was not conscious of very much more until they were back again in
the house and he heard Arsdale's voice,

"I 've rented the offices, old man! Swellest in the city. To-morrow
you must come down and see them!"

CHAPTER XXII

_Clouds_

Arsdale was somewhere about the house and Elaine had gone up-stairs
when Donaldson, who had come out-doors to smoke, saw a man with broad
shoulders and a round unshaven face step from a cab, push through the
hedge gate, and come quickly up the path. He watched him with
indifferent interest, until in the dusk he recognized the stubborn
mouth which gripped a cigar as a bull-dog hangs to a rag. Then he
hurried forward with hand extended.

"Good Lord, Saul," he exclaimed, "where did you drop from?"

"Hello, Don. I rather hoped that I might run across you here."

"I 'm ashamed of myself," answered Donaldson guiltily. "I did n't
notify you that we had found him. But the last I heard of you, you
were out of town."

"Oh, that's all right. Tung gave me the whole story."

"The rat! He made a lot of trouble for us."

"And for me, too."

"Still working on the Riverside robberies?"

Saul glanced up quickly. Then looking steadily into Donaldson's eyes
as though the reply had some significance he answered,

"Yes."

"I wish you luck. And say, old man, I 've worried since for fear lest
you lost a good opportunity for a hot scent the time I kept you out."

"I did. But I picked it up again by chance."

"You did? Have you caught the man?"

"No," answered Saul abstractedly. "Not yet."

He chewed the stub of his cigar a moment, glancing frequently at the
house.

"Say," he asked abruptly, "come down the road here a piece with me,
will you?"

Saul led him to the street and far enough away from the cab so that
their conversatio