was
doing right, and he knew there could be no serious objection to the
daughter of the missing man aiding in a search for her parent.

Larry found Grace waiting for him. She was quietly dressed, and wore
a heavy veil, so that no one in the street would recognize her,
since her picture had been published in several papers, and there
might be comments from the crowd if the daughter of Mr. Potter was
seen out in company of a newspaper reporter.

"Anything new?" asked the young lady, for she had taken to greeting
Larry in that newspaper fashion.

"Not much. I didn't learn anything of consequence by my trip to the
East Side last night. I'm not done there, however. Now we'll try the
piers, and see what sort of a 'pull' you have with the captains of
the vessels."

"We may not find many captains," Grace said, "unless their ships are
about to sail. Still it is worth trying. Shall we start?"

"I'm ready any time you are," Larry answered. "What did your mother
say?"

"She objected a bit at first, but I soon convinced her it was for
the best."

Larry thought it would not have been hard for Grace to have
convinced him that almost anything was for the best. She looked
quite trim in her dark dress, with her glossy hair held snugly in
place by her veil.

As they went down the steps of the mansion Larry saw a man, who was
standing on the other side of the street, move rapidly away, as if
he had been watching the house. The young reporter uttered an
exclamation before he was aware of it, and Grace quickly asked:

"What's the matter?"

"I--I saw some one," Larry replied.

"Any one would think it was a ghost from the way you act," the girl
went on, with a little laugh. She was in much better spirits than
any time since her father had disappeared, for the chance of helping
to search for him, and the change, from sitting idly in the house
waiting for news, was a welcome relief.

"No, it wasn't a ghost. It was a man I'd like to have a chance to
talk to," Larry went on.

"Would he give you--er--a 'story'? Is that what you call it?"

"That's right. Yes, I believe he could give me a story," and Larry
looked in the direction the man had gone. He was no longer to be
seen. "A very good story," he added, for the man was the same one he
had surprised in the tenement the night before--the man of the
life-raft.

However, he could not leave Grace to go in search of the strange
individual, and it was more important, as Mr. Emberg h