t. Petersburg and told me all about
him last summer. He 's just a plain, ordinary, piking crook. But he
's up against the wrong kind of diplomacy this time. I 'll get him
before he leaves Newport and choke that magnetic control out of him.
Come over to the _D'Estang_ a minute, Joe; I want to show you
something. . . . Well, Mr. Jackson, cleaned out? I thought so. Thank
you, I am going to be away for a few days. Don't let anything be
touched, please. Let the work stop until I return. Come on, Joe."

In his cabin on the _D'Estang_, Armitage pointed to several more or
less disreputable garments lying on his berth.

"Say," he said, "would a candidate for physical instructor for the
Wellington boys wear such clothes?"

Thornton looked hard at his friend for a minute and then his face
broadened into a huge smile of understanding. "Not if he wanted the
job," he said. "You 'll make more of a hit as you are."

"All right, and now, Joe, go into the yeoman's office like a good chap,
pick out a time-stained sheet of paper and typewrite a letter, signing
your name as captain of the 19-- football eleven at Annapolis, saying
that the bearer, Jack--Jack--who?"

"McCall," suggested Thornton.

"Yes, McCall--saying that Jack McCall had given great satisfaction as
trainer for the eleven and was honest and God-fearing; you know how to
do it."

"All right," said Thornton, starting for the door. He paused in the
corridor. "Say, Jack, do you know you're taking all this mighty
light?" He frowned. "This is serious."

Armitage frowned too.

"I know, but I 'll be serious enough before it's over, I reckon."

"You will," said Thornton dryly. "How do you expect to get the job
anyway?"

Armitage shrugged his shoulders.

"Leave that to me," he said. "Oh, Joe, are you going to be on the
island for supper?"

"No--not for supper," he said. "I 'll be over from Newport about
eleven o'clock though."

"All right, drop aboard then, will you? I want to see you."

"Right-o," said Thornton.

For some time after his departure Armitage sat writing a document,
covering the case to date, outlining his plans, his suspicions and the
like. It turned out to be lengthy. He sealed it in an envelope,
labelled it, "Armitage vs. Koltsoff," and locked it in a small safe in
the yeoman's room.

One of the engineer's force came in to say that they had made progress
in repairing the boiler baffle plates, designed to keep the funnels
from