ftly.

Yaxis nodded and produced a pot of forget-me-nots. He had been tending
them for three weeks--for Alcie. They bent over the pot, blue with
blossoms, talking eager words and little gestures and quick laughs. And
Achilles, coming out, smiled at the two heads bending above the plant.
Yaxis had been lonely--but now the little laughs seemed to stir softly
in the close rooms and wake something happy there.

XXIII

ACHILLES HAS A PLAN

The next day, life in the little shop went on as if there had been no
break. With the early light, Yaxis was off, to the south, pushing his
tip-cart before him and calling aloud--bananas and fruit and the joy of
Alcibiades's return, in his clear, high voice.... In the shop, Achilles
arranged the fruit--great piles of oranges, and grape fruit and
figs--and swung the heavy bunches of bananas to their hooks outside,
and opened crates and boxes and made ready for the day. By and by, when
trade slackened a little, he would slip away and leave Alcibiades in
charge of the shop. His mind was busy as he worked. He had something
to do that would take him away from the shop--every day for a while, it
might be--but the shop would not suffer. Alcibiades was strong--not well
enough, perhaps, to go out with the new push-cart that had replaced the
old one, and waited outside, but strong enough to make change and fill
up the holes in the piles of oranges as they diminished under the swift
rush of trade.

Achilles's eyes rested on him fondly. It had been lonely in the
shop--but now the long days of waiting were repaid... they had their
clue. Even now the detectives might have followed it up. The little lady
would be found. He hurried over the last things--his heart singing--and
called the boy to him.

"I go away," he said, looking at him kindly. "You stay in shop--till I
come."

"Yes, father." The boy's eyes were happy. It was good to be in the
close, dark, home place with its fruity smell and the striped awning
outside. "I do all right!" he said gaily.

The father nodded. "To-morrow you go with push-cart--little way--every
day little way--" He waited a moment while the boy's face took in
the words--he spoke with slow significance--"Some day you see--those
men--then you run--like devil!" he said quickly, "you tell me!"

The boy's teeth made a quick line of light and his face flashed. "I
tell--quick!" he said, "I know those men!"

He left the shop and was lost in the crowd. He was going fi