"

"I'm an American."

"Fine!" said O'Higgins, jovially. "We won't have any trouble
understanding each other; same language. There's nothing on the
card to indicate it, but I'm a detective."

O'Higgins threw out his chest, gave it a pat, and smiled. This
smile warned the doctor not to underestimate the man. O'Higgins was
all that the doctor had imagined a detective to be: a bulky
policeman in civilian clothes. The blue jowl, the fat-lidded
eyes--now merry, now alert, now tungsten hard--the bullet head, the
pudgy fingers and the square-toed shoes were all in conformation
with the doctor's olden mental picture.

"Yes; I know I look it," said O'Higgins, amiably.

The doctor laughed. But he sobered instantly as he recollected that
O'Higgins had found Spurlock once. Journeying blindly half way
across the world, this man had found his quarry.

"I never wear false whiskers," went on O'Higgins. "The only
disguise I ever put on is a dress-suit, and I look as natural as a
pig at a Mahomedan dinner." O'Higgins was disarming the doctor.
"Won't you sit down?"

"I beg your pardon! Come into the consultation office"; and the
doctor led the way. "What is it you want of me?"

"All you know about this young fellow Spurlock."

"What has he done?"

"He has just naturally peeved his Uncle Sam. Now, you know where he
is bound."

"Did Ah Cum advise you?"

"He did pretty well for a Chinaman. But that's his American
education. Now, it won't do a bit of good to warn Spurlock. He
carries with him something that will mark him anywhere--the girl.
Say, that girl fooled me at first glance. You see, we guys bump up
against so much of the seamy side that we look upon everybody as
guilty until proved innocent, which is hind-side-to. The second
look told me I was wrong."

"I'm going to put one question," interrupted the doctor. "Was there
any other woman back there in the States?"

"Nary a female. Oh, they are married fast. What are you going to
tell me?"

"Nothing." But the doctor softened the refusal by smiling.

"For the sake of the girl. Well, I don't blame you on that ground.
If the boy was legging it alone...."

"I'm a doctor. I took him out of the hands of death. Unless he has
killed someone. I sha'n't utter a word."

"Killed someone?" O'Higgins laughed. "He wouldn't hurt a rabbit."

"You won't tell me what he has done?"

"If you'll tell me where he's heading."

"You can give me a little of his history, can't you? Som