lookout for a young lad who rode this
morning on one of the Fifth Avenue busses where a valuable pocketbook
was lost. Your son tallies so well with the description that--"

"It was I," put in Stephen eagerly, without regard for consequences.
"Who wants me?"

With a smile of eagerness he turned, expecting to encounter the genial
face of his acquaintance of the morning. Then he would smile, hold out
the pocketbook, and they would laugh together as he explained the
adventure, and perhaps afterward have luncheon in company.

Instead no familiar form greeted him. On the contrary the slender man
who had been standing beside the clerk came forward.

Mr. Tolman sensed the situation in a second.

"You mean somebody thinks my son took the pocketbook?" asked he
indignantly, as he confronted the clerk and his companion.

"It is not my affair, sir, and I am sorry it should happen in our
hotel," apologized the clerk. "Perhaps if you will just explain the
whole matter to this gentleman--" he broke off, saying in an undertone
to the man at his elbow. "This is your boy, Donovan."

The tall man came nearer.

"You are a detective?" asked Mr. Tolman bluntly.

"Well, something of the sort, sir," admitted the man called Donovan. "It
is occasionally my business to hunt people up."

"And you have been sent to hunt my son up?"

Donovan nodded.

Stephen turned white and his father put a reassuring hand on his
shoulder.

"My son and I," he replied, addressing the detective quietly, "can
explain this entire affair to you and will do so gladly. The boy did
find the pocketbook but he was ignorant of its value because he has not
even looked inside it. In fact, that he had the article in his
possession did not come into his mind until a few moments ago. If he had
known the thing was valuable, do you suppose he would have left it in
his ulster pocket and checked the coat in a public place like this?"

The detective made no reply.

"We both shall be very glad," went on Mr. Tolman firmly, "to go with you
to headquarters and straighten the matter out."

"There may be no need of that, sir," Donovan responded with a pleasant
smile. "If we can just talk the affair over in a satisfactory way--"

"Suppose you come upstairs to our room," suggested Mr. Tolman. "That
will give us more quiet and privacy. Will that be agreeable to you?"

"Perfectly."

As the three walked toward the elevator Steve glanced with trepidation
at the plain-clothes