, and for the next
week or ten days the force of three employees must work at top speed.
Current business would have to be attended to as usual, and in addition
there was the colossal task of removing the contents of the three
crowded floors from the old building to the new.

There was a second task which, in Drew's secret heart, seemed the more
important. That was to discover the address of the girl he had met on
the pier and learn what he could about her.

In the first flush of determination this had seemed to be a
comparatively easy matter. The very fact that he wanted it so badly
seemed to guarantee his success. Such difficulties as suggested
themselves he waved airily aside. No young Lochinvar coming out of the
West had felt more certain of carrying off his Ellen than Allen Drew
had felt the night before of finding Miss Ruth Adams. But when he
applied his mind to the task in the cold light of day, it did not seem
so easy and he was hazy as to the best way to go about it.

He opened his desk, and before looking at the mail that mutely besought
his attention, he reached for the huge city directory and opened to the
letter "A." He was appalled to find how many Adamses there were.
There were dozens, scores, hundreds! Even with the firm and
corporation names eliminated, the individual Adamses were legion. And
not one of them had Ruth before it.

This, however, he had hardly expected. She was too young to be listed
separately, and would probably be included under the name of her father
or her mother.

He had had a vague idea that, if there were not too many Adamses, he
might take them one by one and by discreet inquiries in the
neighborhood of each find out if the family included a young lady named
Ruth. If he succeeded, that would be a great point gained. What he
should do after that he would have been puzzled to tell. But he had a
desperate hope that, hovering in the vicinity, some way, somehow, he
could manage to secure an introduction.

But now, with this formidable array of names before him, his plan
vanished into thin air. Life was too short, and he could not wait for
eternity!

And how did he know that she lived in the city at all? It was
probable, but not at all certain. She might simply be here on a visit;
and for all he knew her permanent home might be Chicago or San
Francisco.

Clearly, he must see Captain Peters without loss of time. The girl had
gone aboard his bark, and the probab