streets salute me when they see me. Even that
first time, before I knew him or anything, he was just as nice as he
could be. He was in his office, writing at a table under a lamp, and
he just looked up at me, hard and well, taking stock of me, you know,
while I told him who I was and what I'd come for. And then he gave me
a chair and sat and listened to everything I'd got to say, leaning on
his elbow and watching me close. I suppose a Chief of Police gets
used to watching people like that."

"I, I wouldn't wonder," answered Waters vaguely. He was seeing, in a
swift vision, that interview, with the black-browed man in uniform
under the lamp, listening and staring.

"I told him how I felt about it," Miss Pilgrim continued, "and how,
since there wasn't anybody else to speak for the boy, I'd come along
to see if I could do anything. And when I'd finished he let me go on
till I hadn't another word to say that I could think of! he just
bowed and said he'd have been delighted to oblige me, but the
sailor's captain had been in and paid his fine and taken him away
three hours before. Then he sent for glasses of tea and we sat and
had a talk, and I got him to say I could always come again when I
wanted to. But, you see, if it hadn't been for the captain."

"Sure," agreed Waters. "They'd have turned the kid loose for you. And
the Mormon? Seems to me I seen that Mormon, unless there's a couple
of them strayin' around. How did you fix it for him?"

Again, at the query, that ghost of pink showed on her cheeks.

"Oh, he--he wasn't very nice," she answered. "He was a big stout man,
with a curly black beard like fur growing close to his face all round
and shiny round knobs of cheek bulging out of it. I never did get to
hear just what the trouble was with him, because when he was telling
Mr. Selby, he looked round at me first and then bent over the desk
and whispered. Whatever it was, it made Mr. Selby very angry; he
simply bounced out of his chair and shouted the man right out of the
room. And the man, I couldn't help being sorry for him, just went
walking backwards, fending Mr. Selby off with his hands, with his
mouth open and his eyes staring, looking as helpless and aghast as
could be. And when he got to the door, he burst out crying like a
little child."

Waters smacked his knee. "That's him," he cried. "That's the feller!
He was up the river same time as me, an' gettin' plenty to cry for,
too. But what in what made you try