d calculated
his time to the last second and even this trifling delay annoyed him.

But he had prophesied aright. A policeman was coming into view,
leisurely sauntering over his beat, and on the lookout for anything
amiss. Dorothy hurried forward, planted herself firmly in this man's
path and demanded again:

"Are you a policeman?"

"Sure an' 'tis that same that I be! Thanks for all mercies! Me first day
alone at the job, an' what can I do for ye, me pretty colleen?"

"Tell me, or take me, back to the 'Mary Powell,' please. I--I've lost my
way."

"Arrah musha! An' if I was after doin' that same I'd be losin' mine! The
'Mary Powell' is it? Tell me where does she be livin' at. I'm not long
in this counthry and but new app'inted to the foruss. Faith it's a
biggish sort of town to be huntin' one lone woman in."

To anybody older or wiser than Dorothy Chester the very fact of his
loquacity would have betrayed his newness to the "foruss." There wasn't
a prouder nor happier man in the whole great city, that day, than Larry
McCarthy, as he proceeded to explain:

"First cousin on me mother's side to Alderman Bryan McCarthy, as has
helped me over from Connemara, this late whiles, and has made me a
free-born Amerikin citizen, glory be."

"That must be very nice. I suppose an alderman is some sort of a very
high-up man, isn't he? But--"

"High is it, says she. Higher 'an I was when I was carryin' me hod up
wan thim 'sky-scrapers' they do build in this forsaken--I mane
blessed--counthry, says he. Sure it's a higher-up Bryan is, the foine
lad."

"Please, please, will you take me to the 'Mary Powell'?"

"How can I since ye've not told me yet wherever she lives?"

"Why she isn't a--she! She's a boat!"

"Hear til the lass! She isn't a she isn't she? Then she must be a he,
and that'd beat a priest to explain;" and at his own joke the
newly-fledged officer indulged in a most unofficial burst of laughter.
So long and so loud was this that Dorothy stamped her foot impatiently
and another uniformed member of "the force," passing by on the other
side of the street, crossed over to investigate.

At whose arrival officer Larry straightened himself like a ramrod,
squared his shoulders, and affected to be intensely angry with the small
person who had delayed him upon his beat. But he could not deceive the
keen eyes of the more experienced policeman and his superior in rank.

With a swift recognition of the newcomer's greater in