age dressing-room had young Mr. Devon secured a more
extraordinary change than the one he produced now, with the simple aids
at hand.

When Burke returned he found his garage in charge of an unwashed,
unkempt, unprepossessing young ruffian whom he stared at for a full
minute before he accepted him as the man he had left there. The ragged
trousers, the spotted "reefer" buttoned high around the neck, the dirty
cap pulled over the eyes, and the wholly disreputable broken shoes Burke
had brought with him completed the transformation of an immaculate young
gentleman into a blear-eyed follower of the open road.

Clad in these garments, Laurie took a few preliminary shuffles around
the garage, while the owner, watching him, slapped his thigh in
approval. So great was his interest in the "act," indeed, that when the
impersonator left the garage and started off, Burke showed a strong
desire to follow him and see the finish of the performance, a desire
that recalled for a fleeting instant the determined personality of the
young gentleman hidden under the tramp disguise.

At the last moment before leaving, Laurie took from his pocket the tiny
revolver he had brought with him, and holding it in his palm, studied it
in silence. Should he take it, or shouldn't he? He hesitated. Then habit
mastered caution. He dropped it among the discarded heap of clothes, and
picked up in its stead a small screw-driver, which he put into his
ragged pocket. That particular tool looked as if it might be useful.

Lounging up the country road, with his cold, bare, dirty hands in the
pockets of the borrowed reefer, he looked about with assurance. He
believed that in this unexpected guise, he could meet even Shaw and get
away with it; but he meant to be very careful and take no unnecessary
chances.

He cut across half a dozen fields, climbed half a dozen fences, was
fiercely barked at by a dozen dogs, more or less, and finally reaching
the grounds of the house in the cedars, approached it from the rear in
exactly the half-sneaking, half-cocky manner in which the average tramp
would have drawn near a shuttered house from one of whose chimneys smoke
was rising. It was a manner that nicely blended the hope of a hand-out
with the fear of a rebuff. Once he fancied he saw something moving among
the trees. He ducked back and remained quiet for some time. Then,
reassured by the continued silence, he emerged, sauntered to the back
entrance, and after a brief