in spite of the fact that I visited the hospital every day, five days
passed before I was allowed to speak to him or he was allowed to talk.

I was very anxious for this opportunity, for I had now a new reason
for my growing interest in the young fellow who so stubbornly refused
to give me a name by which to call him. He was enrolled among the
guards as L. Carr, and I at once adopted this name in speaking to or
of him.

I had determined at the first moment possible to have a confidential
talk with him, confidential upon my part, at least, and I meant to win
his confidence if possible.

In the meantime I had laid all the story of this day's adventures
before Dave Brainerd, beginning with the discovery in the newspaper,
and my search up-town and down for trace of missing Gerald Trent, and
I ended by adding to all the rest a few ideas and opinions of my own,
which caused Dave, in spite of his lately expressed lofty opinion of
my imaginative qualities, first to open his eyes, and then to roar
with laughter.

But he was my hearty second at the last, even to the point of agreeing
with me that, if we could accomplish but the one end, it were better
to find and rescue Gerald Trent, if he were living and in duress,
which we both doubted, or to solve the mystery of his fate if dead,
than to arrest a pair, or a trio, of counterfeiters, or possible
diamond robbers. As to Miss Jenrys and the mysterious guard, he would
no more have given up the thought of solving the problem of the
brunette's pursuit of these two than would I at that moment. But we
needed all the light possible, and we agreed at once that to obtain
this it would be wise, at this point, to make certain confidences to
the two persons most interested.

* * * * *

As to the elusive brunette, her 'shadow' had followed her for days
more faithfully and at closer quarters than we could have done,
because of his small stature and his easily managed 'lightning
changes,' managed by the aid of a reversible jacket, three or four
varicoloured silk handkerchiefs, and two or three hats or caps, all
stuffed into convenient pockets. But his report was, after all, far
from complete or conclusive.

'I've follered her,' he declared, 'till my laigs ached, an' I never
seen a woman 'at c'ud git over the ground like her. Ever sence that
first trip my laigs 'a' bin stiff!'

The boy had followed her on the first day by devious ways, and until
after mid