a
brilliant thought. I would have tattooed upon it an American eagle.
Imagine the enthusiasm of an audience when I stood straight, spread my
arms and showed that noble emblem of our nation's strength and
freedom! I told Herr Schreckenheim and he set to work. When--and the
contract price, by the way, for doing that eagle was five hundred
dollars--when the eagle was about completed, I said to Herr
Schreckenheim, 'Of course you will do no more eagles?'

"'More eagles?' he said questioningly.

"'On other men," I said. 'I want to be the only man with an eagle on
my chest.'

"'I am doing an eagle on another man now,' he said.

"I was angry at once. I jumped from the table and threw on my clothes.
'Cheater!' I cried. 'Not another spot or dot shall you make on me! Go!
I will never pay you a cent!'

"He was very angry. 'It is a contract!' he cried. 'Five hundred
dollars you owe me!'

"'I owe it to you when the job is complete,' I declared. 'That was the
contract. Is this job complete? Where are the eagle's claws? I'll
never pay you a cent!'

"We had a lot of angry words. He demanded that I give him a chance to
put the claws on the eagle. I refused. I said I would never pay. He
said he would follow me to the end of the world and collect. He said
he would do those eagle claws if he had to do them on my infant
daughter. I dared him to touch the child. And now," said Mr.
Medderbrook, "he has taken the golf cup I value at five hundred
dollars. He has won."

At the mention of the threat regarding the child, Philo Gubb's eyes
opened wide, but he kept silence.

"Gubb," said Mr. Medderbrook suddenly, "I'll give you a thousand
dollars if you can recover my poor child."

"The deteckative profession is full of complicity of detail," said Mr.
Gubb, "and the impossible is quite possible when put in the right
hands. The cup--"

"Bother the cup!" said Mr. Medderbrook carelessly. "I want my
child--I'll give _ten_ thousand dollars for my child, Gubb."

With difficulty could Philo Gubb restrain his eagerness to depart. He
had a clue!

Ordinarily Mr. Gubb would have taken any disguise that seemed to him
best suited for the work in hand; but now he was going to see and be
seen by Syrilla!

Mr. Gubb ran down the list--Number Seven, Card Sharp; Number Nine,
Minister of the Gospel; Number Twelve, Butcher; Number Sixteen, Negro
Hack-Driver; Number Seventeen, Chinese Laundryman; Number Twenty,
Cowboy.... Philo Gubb paused there. He