ar in Europe
and America at this present time; while if you include North Milligan,
where it's beginnin' to shoot like the Old Faithful geyser----"

"Awful obliged to you, Judson," the other took up, humbly. "I thought
that bunch o' nuts 'd never----"

"So did I, Gorry. I've sweated blood over this job all winter. Queer
the way men are made. Now you'd hardly believe the work I've had to
show that lot of boneheads that because a guy's a detective in one
line, he ain't a detective in every line. Homicide, I said, was Gorry
Larrabin's specialty, and where there's no homicide he's no more a
detective than a busted rubber tire."

"You've said it," Gorry corroborated, earnestly. "One of the cussed
things about detectin' is that fellas gets afraid of you. Think
because you're keepin' up your end you must be down on every little
thing, and that you ain't a sport."

"Must be hard," Judson said, sympathetically.

"I'll tell you it's hard. Lots of fun I'd like to be let in on--but
you're kept outside."

The drawbacks of the detective profession not being what Judson
chiefly had on his mind he allowed the subject to drop. An interval of
silence for the consumption of a plateful of golden toasties
permitted Gorry to begin again reminiscently.

"By the way, Judson, do you remember that about six months ago you was
chewin' over that girl of yours, and what had become of her?"

To himself Judson said: "That's the talk; now we're comin' to
business." Aloud he made it: "Why, yes. Seems to me I do. She's been
gone so long I'd almost forgot her."

"Well, what d'ye know? Last night--lemme see, was it last night?--no,
night before last--I kind o' got wind of her."

"Heaven's sake!"

"Guy I know was comin' through East Sixty-seventh Street, and there
was my lady, dressed to beat the band, leadin' one of them little toy
dogs, and talkin' to a swell toff that lives in one of them houses.
Got the number here in my pocket-book."

While he was searching his pocket-book Judson asked, breathlessly:
"Couldn't be no mistake?"

"It's nix on mistakes. That guy don't make 'em. Surest thing on the
force. He said, 'Good afternoon, Miss Gravely'; and she said, 'Good
afternoon' back to him--just like that. The guy walked on and turned a
corner; but when he peeped back, there was the couple goin' into the
house just like husband and wife. What d'ye know?"

"What do I know? I know I'll spill his claret for him before the week
is out."

"Ah