call upon him. He owes me something like fifty pounds,
and I am going to collect it." Then he went out.

The consul-general dropped Mallow's perfecto into the waste-basket and
lighted his pipe. Once more he read the cablegram. The Andes
Construction Company. What a twist, what an absurd kink in the skein!
Nearly all of Elsa's wealth lay bound up in this enormous business
which General Chetwood had founded thirty odd years before. And
neither of them knew!

"I am not a bad man at heart," he mused, "but I liked the young man's
expression when I mentioned that bully Mallow."

He joined his family at five. He waved aside tea, and called for a
lemon-squash.

"Elsa, I am going to give you a lecture."

"Didn't I tell you?" cried Elsa to the wife. "I felt in my bones that
he was going to say this very thing." She turned to her old-time
friend. "Go on; lecture me."

"In the first place, you are too kind-hearted."

"That will be news to my friends. They say I have a heart of ice."

"And what you think is independence of spirit is sometimes
indiscretion."

"Oh," said Elsa, becoming serious.

"A man came into my office to-day. He is a rich copra-grower from
Penang. He spoke of you. You passed him on going out. If I had been
twenty years younger I'd have punched his ugly head. His name is
Mallow, and he's not a savory chap."

Elsa's cheeks burned. She never would forget the look in that man's
eyes. The look might have been in other men's eyes, but
conventionality had always veiled it; she had never seen it before.

"Go on;" but her voice was unsteady.

"Somewhere along the Irrawaddy you made the acquaintance of a young man
who calls himself Warrington, familiarly known as Parrot & Co. I'll be
generous. Not one woman in a thousand would have declined to accept
the attentions of such a man. He is cultivated, undeniably
good-looking, a strong man, mentally and physically."

Elsa's expression was now enigmatical.

"There's not much veneer to him. He fooled me unintentionally. He was
quite evidently born a gentleman, of a race of gentlemen. His is not
an isolated case. One misstep, and the road to the devil."

The consul-general's wife sent a startled glance at Elsa, who spun her
sunshade to lighten the tension of her nerves.

"He confessed frankly to me this morning that he is a fugitive from
justice. He wishes to return to America. He recounted the
circumstances of your meeting. To me