n eyes turned from me as he put the question, for that it
was, and I saw a dull-red flush rise from his throat and dye his face
to the very tip of his jaunty visor. I detected, too, a note of
anxiety in the mellow voice that he could not quite suppress.

'I don't know, but fancy not--not much, at any rate.' We had come out
from the shadow of the viaduct, and he halted as I spoke. I checked my
steps also, and I checked my speech too. The anxiety in the voice was
reflected now in the face. I was smiling slightly, and through my mind
flitted a fragment of doggerel:

'Oh, there's nothing so flirtatious
As the bowld soldier boy!'

Suddenly the brown eyes came back to my face, open and clear as day.

'I owe it to myself,' he said, with sudden dignity, 'to explain. At
the moment when she turned away, I recognised the young lady as an
acquaintance, and was naturally interested to know if she had received
any hurt--the blow seemed a severe one. I saw you pick up her bag and
start in pursuit, and when you came back I ventured to address you. I
could not follow far; this is my beat.'

'I see!' I was quite won by the young fellow's frank and manly air and
his handsome face; 'and I'm sorry I can't enlighten you. I did not
find the lady.'

'Oh!' There was a world of disappointment in this one syllable, and
before he could utter another a new voice broke into the dialogue.

'Pardon me, please! But'--a little pant--'but I saw you pick up my
friend's bag, and--and she was so fatigued after the shock that I ran
back.'

The speaker stopped here, and for several seconds seemed occupied in
recovering her breath. She was a small and plump brunette, well
dressed, and wearing a dashing sailor-hat of black, wide-brimmed and
adorned with two aggressive-looking scarlet wings; this and the red
veil dotted with black which partially concealed the face was all that
I had time to note before she spoke again, coming closer to me and
altogether ignoring the good-looking guard.

'She was so startled and nervous after the shock that she sat down
near the Java Village, and I came back the moment I could leave her.'
She shot a glance over her shoulder, and turned her look squarely
upon the guard, who had drawn back a pace. 'A chair-boy,' she hurried
on, 'waiting near the Libbey Glass Works saw you pick up the bag, and
told us the way you had gone. Will you please give me the bag?'

I had been studying the little brunette while she ta