n the street in that
Jap juggler costume of yours. What happened after you left me?"

Wilson told of the empty house, of finding the note, of locating the
other house, and finally of the letter and his race for the wharf.

"And then I ran into Stubbs and landed here," he concluded.

"What did Stubbs tell you of this expedition?"

"Nothing--except that we are running to Carlina."

"Yes," sighed Danbury, dreamily, "to Carlina. Well, things certainly
_have_ been coming fast for you these last few days. And I'll tell you
right now that when we reach Carlina if you need me or any of this
crew to help you get the girl, you can count on us. We've got a pretty
good job of our own cut out, but perhaps the two will work together."

He relighted his pipe, adjusted thyhe pillows more comfortably, and
with hands clasped behind his head began his own story.

"To go back a little," he said, "father made a pot of money in
coffee--owned two or three big plantations down around Rio; but he had
no sooner got a comfortable pile together than he died. That's way
back just about as far as I can remember. As a kid I wasn't very
strong, and so cut out school mostly--got together a few scraps of
learning under a tutor, but never went to college. Instead of that,
the mater let me knock around. She's the best ever that way, is the
mater--tends to her Bridge, gives me an open account, and, so long as
she hears once a month, is happy.

"Last year I took a little trip down to Dad's plantations, and from
there rounded the Horn on a sailing vessel and landed way up the west
coast in Carlina. It was just chance that led me to get off there and
push in to Bogova. I'd heard of gold mines in there and thought I'd
have a look at them. But before I came to the gold mines I found
something else."

He paused a moment. Then, without a word, rose slowly and, fumbling
about a moment in a cedar chest near his bunk, drew out a photograph.

"That's she," he said laconically.

Wilson saw the features of a girl of twenty, a good profile of rather
a Southern cast, and a certain poise of the head which marked her as
one with generations of equally good features back of her.

If not decidedly beautiful, she was most attractive, giving an
impression of an independent nature enlivened with humor. It seemed to
Wilson that she might furnish a very good balance to Danbury.

"You lose the best part of her," said Danbury, reseating himself on
the bunk. "You can'