last night.
You ain't after no more crim'nals, are you?"

"There are variously many ends to the deteckative business," said Mr.
Gubb, as he seated himself beside Syrilla. "I'm upon a most important
case at the present time."

Syrilla reached for her fifth boiled potato, and as her arm passed Mr.
Gubb's face he thrilled. He had not been mistaken. Upon that arm was a
pair of eagle's claws, tattooed in red and blue! How little these had
meant to him before, and how much they meant now!

"I presume you don't hardly ever long for a home in one place, Miss
Syrilla," he began, with his eye fixed on her arm just above the
elbow.

"Well, believe me, dearie," said Syrilla, "you don't want to think
that just because I travel with a side-show I don't long for the
refinements of a true home just like other folks. Some folks think I'm
easy to see through and that I ain't nothin' but fat and appetite, but
they've got me down wrong, Mr. Gubb. I was unfortunate in gettin' lost
from my father and mother when a babe, but many is the time I've said
to Zozo, 'I got a refined strain in my nature.' Haven't I, Zozo?"

"You say it every time we begin to rag you about fallin' in love with
every new thin man you see," said Princess Zozo. "You said it last
night when we was joshin' you about Mr. Gubb here."

Syrilla colored, but Mr. Gubb thrilled joyously.

"Just the same, dearie," Syrilla said to Princess Zozo, "I've got
myself listed right when I say I got a refined nature. I've got all
the instincts of a real society lady and sometimes it irks me awful
not to be able to let myself loose and bant like--"

"Pant?" asked Mr. Gubb.

"_Bant_ was the word I used, Mr. Gubb," Syrilla replied. "Maybe you
wouldn't guess it, lookin' at me shovelin' in the eatables this way,
but eatin' food is the croolest thing I have to do. It jars me
somethin' terrible. Yes, dearie, what I long for day and night is a
chance to take my place in the social stratums I was born for and
bant off the fat like other social ladies is doin' right along. I
don't eat food because I like it, Mr. Gubb, but because a lady in a
profession like mine has got to keep fatted up. My outside may be fat,
Mr. Gubb, but I got a soul inside of me as skinny as any fash'nable
lady would care to have, and as soon as possible I'm goin' to quit the
road and bant off six or seven hundred pounds. Would you believe it
possible that I ain't dared to eat a pickle for over seven years,
becaus