"About six-foot-three," answered Hazelton, slowly and thoughtfully. "He
was broad of shoulder and comparatively slim at the waist. He must weigh
from two hundred and twenty-five to thirty pounds. As to age, I couldn't
tell you whether he was nearer thirty or forty years. From his agility I
should place him in the thirty-year class."

"Any beard?"

"Smooth-faced."

"Scars?"

"I couldn't see that much in the dark."

"Color of his clothes?"

"Some darkish stuff---that's all I can say."

"Could you pick him out of a crowd of negroes?"

"Not if they were all of the same height and weight," Hazelton admitted.

"Do you think you ever saw him before?" Reade pressed.

"I'm sure that I never have," Harry replied.

"Then he wasn't one of our men in this camp at any time?" Mr. Prenter
interjected.

"We have never had a man in the camp as large as this negro," Harry
rejoined.

"Such a very large black man ought not to be hard for the detectives to
locate," Prenter continued.

"Very good, sir. Then you can let the sleuths have a try at the matter,"
Tom suggested.

"Have you any telegraph blanks here?"

Tom went inside, coming out with a pad of blanks. Mr. Prenter addressed a
dispatch to the head of a detective agency in Mobile.

"We'll get the 'bus driver to take this over to town," said Mr. Prenter,
as he signed the dispatch.

"You had better send your dispatch by Nicolas, who is so faithful that he
can't be pumped, and he never talks about things that he shouldn't."

The Mexican was accordingly sent away in the stage. When he returned
Nicolas busied himself with getting supper and setting it on the table.
Superintendent Renshaw returned from the work in time to join the others
at table.

"Mr. Reade, how are you going to protect the works to-night?" inquired the
superintendent.

"I'm going to order Foreman Corbett and twenty men to night duty," Tom
answered. "The motor boat will also be out to-night. We'll have every
bit of the wall watched by men with lanterns."

"What you ought to do," suggested Treasurer Prenter, "is to light the
breakwater up with electric lights. You have steam power enough here, and
with a dynamo you could supply current to the lights."

"There's the expense to be considered," mildly observed President Bascomb.

"The expense is a good deal less than having the wall damaged by more
explosions," said Prenter, rather sharply. "Reade, how long would it take
you to get