ce traced the last
missing piece to a pawnshop. The pawnbroker testified that a girl
pawned it. His identification of me was close enough to satisfy the
judge."

"My God!"

"I was what they call a first offender. At least, I had no police
record. Ordinarily I might have been let go under suspended sentence
or been put on probation. But I had nobody to say a good word for
me. I had been in Boston only a year, and I could not let people
where I came from know about my trouble. Even if the judge had
given me a jail sentence, I could have shortened it by good
behavior. He did what he thought was best, I suppose. He considered
me a hardened young criminal. He sent me to the St. Andrew's School
until I was twenty-one--two years. Two long, long years.

"Six months ago I got out and Sellers gave me a job. Now, that is
all, Captain Latham. You will readily see my position. I do not want
to go anywhere with you to eat where your friends are likely to see
you."

He uttered a sudden, stinging, harsh sound; then he removed his cap
and bent toward her.

"But what you have said--Why, were they all crazy? Couldn't they see
that such a thing would be impossible for you? Impossible!"

She put a hand gently on his arm to quiet his excitement, for others
were passing. Her eyes glowed up into his for an instant. Her lips
parted in a happier smile than he had seen on them before.

"Then you will not get up from this bench, Captain Latham, and
excuse yourself? I should not blame you if you did so."

"Do you think I'm that kind of a fellow?" he demanded bluntly.

"I--I told you I thought I had quite read your character in your
face. But that is no reason why I should take advantage of your
kindness to do you harm."

"Harm? How do you mean, 'harm?'"

"Sheila Macklin is a creature from a reformatory. She has been
sentenced by a magistrate. She was arrested by the police. She was
accused by her employers of theft, and the theft was proved. If any
of your friends should see you with me, and I should be identified
as the Sheila Macklin who was sentenced for stealing--"

"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis with a sudden reversion to his usual
cheerful manner. "Are you going through the rest of your life
feeling like that?"

"Why shouldn't I? I am always expecting somebody to see and
recognize me. Even in Sellers' place. That man this evening, when he
called me 'jailbird'--"

"I wish I had wrung his neck!" exclaimed the captain of the