o sure that she was only
using him as a means for obtaining information about that young lady,
and that this interview was only the beginning of what was meant to
become an acquaintance more or less confidential.

As a result of my reticence, the young fellow had barely escaped with
his life; even now, so the doctor said, fever or inflammation might
put it in jeopardy.

Well, it was not my only blunder, I thought, looking back, with a grim
smile, to my first absurd exploit. But I would try very hard to make
it my last; at least, where 'the gang,' as Dave was wont to call
Delbras and Company, was concerned. And when thinking of 'the gang,' I
could not but note how both Dave and myself had reversed our first
order in naming them, and now spoke, invariably, not of 'Greenback Bob
and the rest,' but of 'Delbras and Company.' Somehow, Delbras seemed
to have taken the foremost place in our thoughts, as I fully believed
he was foremost in all the plots, plans and undertakings of the
mysterious and elusive three. And yet he was the one out of the gang
against whom we had no actual case.

We could see the hand of Greenback Bob in the counterfeit two-dollar
greenbacks which had started into circulation so briskly, and then so
suddenly dropped out of sight. And his work was also visible in that
attack upon the guard; for who, according to the police records, could
handle a 'slung-shot' as could Bob? And that the guard's wound was the
work of a sling, we--the surgeon and myself--quite believed.

As for the brunette, we might begin with her little confidence game,
in which she did not secure Miss Jenrys' bag; charge her with the sale
of the stolen emerald, and bring home to her the loss of the
'dew-drops' and other contents of the chamois-bag lost in her flight
across Wooded Island--when we found her again.

But Delbras! We might believe him to be the originator of, and prime
mover in, the Lausch diamond robbery, but the only shadow of
corroboration was our belief--based upon the fact of Dave's having
seen the three together--that they were 'partners,' and that Delbras
was credited with being an expert diamond thief. Not a promising
outlook, I sometimes said to Dave, in my moments of discouragement,
which my practical friend declared were somehow always synonymous with
my moments of hunger.

But to return to our guard and his interests. During the fifteen
minutes kindly granted by the doctor, and which somehow ran into half
a