y paid the bill, while denying the claim,
and then, like his companion, he slipped through the crowd and was
soon out of sight.

Meantime, my friend the guard, with a look of disgust and weariness
upon his face, had turned away the moment his duty was done, and I
followed him, smiling a little over this reversal of our positions.

'Well,' I said, as I reached his side, 'I see there is good reason for
your ability to judge a "straight-from-the-shoulder" knock-out blow.'

He turned quickly, and with a shade of haughtiness upon his face,
which was lost in a smile as he recognised me.

'Ah,' he said courteously, 'good-morning! So you witnessed that
pitiful affair. It does not fall to my lot to serve ladies.' He
hesitated slightly, and then asked, 'Did you deliver up your find?'

I laughed and shook my head. I had fallen into step with him, and we
were now moving slowly along his beat.

'If you refer to the lady with the dark eyes, who had the poor taste
to ignore your presence,' I said, 'I did not. I may have committed a
blunder, but my judgment condemned the little person.'

He turned toward me a quick look of interest.

'Then you thought----' He stopped, and the red blood dyed his face as
on that first day.

'I thought,' I instantly took up the word, 'that she was an
adventuress, not a companion or friend to the owner of the little
bag.'

'And you were right,' he exclaimed. 'The lady who--who dropped the bag
you found was alone when those foreign brutes with their palanquin ran
against her. I was not near enough to reach her promptly; but I
saw--and the other--the brunette, it is a strange fancy, perhaps, but
I have thought that she had been following Miss--the lady, though for
what purpose----' He stopped. 'It is no affair of mine. I--I am glad
that the lady has her property.'

'But she has not got her property.'

'No? Pardon me, I did not understand.'

He had turned his face to the front, but I could see that he was
agitated, and was holding himself under with a strong hand. As I
walked beside him and noted his fine physique, the well-set head and
clear-cut features, I felt genuinely attracted toward the manly
fellow, and wondered what was the secret of his interest in that
lovely girl, whom he had yet shunned; for, looking back upon the
events of the previous day, I could see that he had purposely held
aloof from the moment when he saw that a champion and protector was at
hand.

'I had thought,' he s