the fizzle. Later he dispatched a cable announcing the
escape and the sending of the letter. When he returned to Hong-Kong,
there was a reply to his cable:

"Hang on. Find that boy."

Some order. South America was big; but ten thousand islands,
scattered all over the biggest ocean on the map! Nearly all of them
clear of the ship lanes and beaten tracks! The best thing he could
do would be to call up the Quai d'Orsay and turn over the job to
Lecocq. Only a book detective could dope this out.

What he needed most in this hour was a bottle of American rye-whisky
and a friendly American bar-keep to talk to. He regretted now that
in his idle hours he hadn't hunted up one against the rainy day. The
barmaids had too strongly appealed to his sense of novelty. So he
marched into the street, primarily bent upon making the favourable
discovery. If there was a Yankee bar-keep in Hong-Kong, James Boyle
would soon locate him. No blowzy barmaids for him to-day: an
American bar-keep to whom he could tell his troubles and receive the
proper meed of sympathy.

The sunshine was brilliant, the air mild. The hotel on the Peak had
the aspect of a fairy castle. The streets were full of colour.
O'Higgins wandered into this street and that, studying the signs
and resenting the Britisher's wariness in using too much tin and
paint. This niggardliness compelled him to cross and recross
streets.

Suddenly he came to a stop, his mouth agape.

"Solid ivory!" he said aloud; "solid from dome to neck! That's
James Boyle in the family group. And if I hadn't been thirsty, that
poor boob would have made a sure getaway and left James Boyle high
and dry among the moth-balls! Oh, the old dome works once every so
often. Fancy, as they say hereabouts!"

What had aroused this open-air monologue was a small tin sign in a
window. Marine Insurance. Here was a hole as wide as a church-door.
What could be simpler than, with a set of inquiries relative to a
South Sea tramp registered as _The Tigress_, to make a tour of all
the marine insurance companies in Hong-Kong? O'Higgins proceeded to
put the idea into action; and by noon he had in his possession a
good working history of the owner of _The Tigress_ and the exact
latitude and longitude of his island.

He cabled to New York: "Probable destination known."

"Make it positive," was the brisk reply.

O'Higgins made it positive; but it required five weeks of broken
voyages: with dilapidated hotels, poor fo