ing Sun
Detective Agency, where he bought all his disguises. It consisted of a
tall conical cap spangled with stars, a sort of red Mother-Hubbard
gown bespattered with black crescents, a small metal tube, and a wand.
With the metal tube came several hundred sheets of apparently blank
paper, but, when these were rolled into cylinders and inserted in the
metal tube for half a minute, characters appeared on the sheets. A
child could work the magic tube, and so could Philo Gubb.

It was not until the second day that Mr. Beech thought of Mr. Gubb at
all. Then Mrs. Phillipetti, daughter-in-law of General Phillipetti,
who was Ambassador to Siberia in 1867, asked for Mr. Gubb. Mrs.
Phillipetti was in charge of the Hot Waffles Booth, No. 13, aided by
seventeen ladies of the highest society Riverbank could boast, and
they served hot waffles with their own fair hands to all who chose to
buy. The cooking of the waffles, being a warm task in late June, had
been turned over to three colored women, hired for the occasion, and
to complete the "ongsomble" and make things perfectly "apropos"--two
of Mrs. Phillipetti's favorite words--the three colored women had been
dressed as Turkish slaves, while Mrs. Phillipetti and her aides
dressed as Beauties of the Harem.

To judge by Mrs. Phillipetti's costume, the Beauties of the Harem were
expensive to clothe. She had more silk, gold lace, and tinsel strung
upon her ample form than would set a theatrical costumer up in
business, but the star feature of her costume was her turban. It was a
gorgeous creation, and would have been a comfortable piece of headgear
in midwinter, although slightly heating for a hot June day, but it
came near being the talk of the Carnival, for in the center of the
front, just above her forehead, Mrs. Phillipetti had pinned the
celebrated brooch containing the Dragon's Eye--the priceless ruby
given to old General Phillipetti by the Dugosh of Zind after the old
diplomat had saved the worthless life of the old reprobate by
appealing to the Vice-Regent of Siberia in his behalf.

The Dragon's Eye was about the size of a lemon and weighed nearly as
much as a pound of creamery butter, so it required considerable turban
to make it "apropos" and complete its "ongsomble." Pinned on her
shelf-like chest, Mrs. Phillipetti wore a small mirror somewhat
smaller than a tea saucer. By tipping the outer edge of the mirror
upward and glancing down into it, Mrs. Phillipetti had a good