lins will show you where it
is."

"Very well. You must forgive this preliminary informal call. We came
in more to shelter from the rain than anything."

"You did, did you?"

Jimmy felt that it behooved him to stand on his dignity. The
situation demanded it.

"Why," he said with some hauteur, "in the ordinary course of
business I should hardly waste time over a small crib like--"

"It's banks fer his," murmured Spike, rapturously. "He eats dem
alive. An' jools from duchesses."

"I admit a partiality for jewels and duchesses," said Jimmy. "And,
now, as it's a little late, perhaps we had better--Ready, Spike?
Good-night, then. Pleased to have met you."

"I'll see you at my office."

"I may possibly look in. I shall be doing very little work in New
York, I fancy. I am here merely on a vacation."

"If you do any work at all," said the policeman coldly, "you'll look
in at my office, or you'll wish you had when it's too late."

"Of course, of course. I shouldn't dream of omitting any formality
that may be usual. But I don't fancy I shall break my vacation. By
the way, one little thing. Have you any objections to my carving a
J on your front-door?"

The policeman stared.

"On the inside. It won't show. It's just a whim of mine. If you have
no objection?"

"I don't want any of your--" began the policeman.

"You misunderstand me. It's only that it means paying for a dinner.
I wouldn't for the world--"

The policeman pointed to the window.

"Out you get," he said, abruptly. "I've had enough of you. And don't
you forget to come to my office."

Spike, still deeply mistrustful of the bull-dog Rastus, jumped at
the invitation. He was through the window and out of sight in the
friendly darkness almost before the policeman had finished speaking.
Jimmy remained.

"I shall be delighted--" he had begun. Then, he stopped. In the
doorway was standing a girl--a girl whom he recognized. Her startled
look told him that she, too, had recognized him.

Not for the first time since he had set out from his flat that night
in Spike's company, Jimmy was conscious of a sense of the unreality
of things. It was all so exactly as it would have happened in a
dream! He had gone to sleep thinking of this girl, and here she was.
But a glance at the man with the revolver brought him back to earth.
There was nothing of the dream-world about the police-captain.

That gentleman, whose back was toward the door, had not observed the
add