'll have to
call it off. Give me two minutes, will you?"

That was Snick, all over--losin' out just as easy as some folks wins.
When he comes back, though, and I tells him what's doin', he says he'd
like to know just where the lamp was goin', so he could be around after
it in the mornin'.

"Sure," says I. "Bring it along up with you, then, there won't be any
chance of our losin' it."

So all three of us goes back to the hotel. Pinckney wa'n't sayin' a
word, actin' like he was kind of dazed, but watchin' Snick all the
time. As we gets into the elevator, he pulls me by the sleeve and
whispers:

"I say, Shorty, which one is it?"

"The south one," says I.

It wasn't till we got clear into Sir Hunter's reception room, under the
light, that Pinckney heaves up something else.

"Oh, I say!" says he, starin' at Snick. "Beg pardon for mentioning it,
but yours is a--er--you have blue eyes, haven't you, Mr. Butters?"

"That's right," says Snick.

"And Sir Hunter's are brown. It will never do," says he.

"Ah, what's the odds at night?" says I. "Maybe the girl's colour
blind, anyway."

"No," says Pinckney, "Sir Hunter would never do it. Now, if you only
knew of some one with a----"

"I don't," says I. "Snick's the only glass eyed friend I got on my
repertoire. It's either his or none. You send Rinkey in to ask
Twiggle if a blue one won't do on a pinch."

Mr. Rinkey didn't like the sound of that program a bit, and he goes to
clawin' around my knees, beggin' me not to send him in to the lord
sahib.

"G'wan!" says I, pushin' him off. "You make me feel as if I was bein'
measured for a pair of leggin's. Skiddo!"

As I gives him a shove my finger catches in the white stuff he has
around his head, and it begins to unwind. I'd peeled off about a yard,
when out rolls somethin' shiny that Snick spots and made a grab for.

"Hello!" says he. "What's this?"

It was the stray brown, all right. That Kipling coon has had it stowed
away all the time. Well say, there was lively doin's in that room for
the next few minutes; me tryin' to get a strangle hold on Rinkey, and
him doin' his best to jump through a window, chairs bein' knocked over,
Snick hoppin' around tryin' to help, and Pinckney explainin' to Sir
Hunter through the keyhole what it was all about.

When it was through we held a court of inquiry. And what do you guess?
That smoked Chinaman had swiped it on purpose, thinkin' if he wore it
on the back o