laughed and pointed at him but without apparently attracting the
attention of the two men in front, they turned into the darkest and
quietest streets. Evan soon saw that they were not bound for the
club-house. Their journey through town was not long; through
Fifty-eighth to Lexington; down Lexington in the car tracks to
Thirty-ninth, and East again. In Thirty-ninth street the car slowed
down and Evan held himself in readiness to drop off.

At the moment of stopping Evan ducked under the side of the car
opposite to the curb. He heard the car-door slam and feet run across
the pavement. Cautiously peering around the back he saw Charley, fully
revealed in the light of a street lamp, run up the steps of a house and
let himself in with a latch-key. Just before disappearing he glanced
up and down the street; no other car was in sight. Evan said to
himself: "He is stopping here. That is something to know."

Evan peeped over the top. To his surprise he found the car empty. The
second man had dropped off at some point en route without his seeing
him. Evidently he still had the securities for Charley's hands had
been empty. Evan was chagrined to think of this prize slipping through
his fingers; however he still had a line on Charley.

Unfortunately for Evan at this moment a gruff voice behind him said:
"Hey, young man, what do you think you're doin'?"

It was a policeman who, having observed Evan's maneuvres from across
the street, had felt a perhaps not unnatural curiosity and had come
over to satisfy it.

Evan, silently cursing his luck, instantly said with a confiding air:
"It's just a joke, officer. Fellow I know hired this car to take his
girl out, see? I think they're going to run off and be married, and I
want to give them the laugh, see? All in fun."

"Well, it may be so," was the heavily facetious reply, "and again it
may not. You better leave that guy be, see?"

"Just as you say," said Evan with a shrug.

He was not at all anxious to have Charley come out and find him in talk
with the blue-coat, so he sauntered off down the street, the policeman
following with a darkly suspicious eye. Glancing over his shoulder,
Evan, to his unspeakable chagrin, saw Charley come scampering down the
steps, jump in the car and start off in the other direction. In his
heart Evan cursed the whole race of blue-coats.

Evan walked around the block and approached the house from the other
side. The policeman was now