ar. The flare revealed Donaldson's eager
eyes, his tense mouth. He carelessly snapped the burnt match to the
lapel of Donaldson's coat and stooping to pick it off took occasion to
whiff the latter's breath.

"The sooner we start--" suggested Donaldson, impatiently.

Saul stepped in, his two hundred pounds making the springs squeak, and
sinking into a corner waited to see what he might learn from
Donaldson's talk. The suspicion had crossed his mind that possibly the
latter had got into some such way himself--it was over a year since he
had seen him--and was taking this method to hunt up an all-night opium
joint. His experience made him constantly suspicious, but unlike the
regular police, a suspicion with him remained a suspicion until proven.
It never gained strength merely by being in his thought. At the end of
five minutes he had discarded this theory. Stopping the machine, he
gave the cabby a real address in the place of the fictitious one he had
first given in Donaldson's hearing. The latter's mind, supernormally
alert, detected the ruse instantly. He placed a hand upon Saul's knee.

"Beefy, you didn't suspect me, did you?"

"What the devil is the matter with you then?" demanded Saul.

"Nothing. What makes you think there is?"

"The mouth, man, the mouth! You don't get those wrinkles in the corner
and a tight chin by being left alone five minutes, if all that is
troubling you is a lost friend."

"You 're too confounded suspicious. It's only that I 've so many
things to do, Beefy."

"Business picked up?"

Donaldson smiled. Saul had known his Grub Street life. As the cab
sped on he regained his self-control. Action, movement was all he
needed. For the next ten minutes he surprised Saul with his enthusiasm
and loquacity. The latter having known him as a quiet and rather
reserved fellow, finally decided that it was a clear case of woman.
The questions he asked about young Arsdale, in securing a minute
description of the man, confirmed this impression.

The cab turned into the narrow cobbled streets of Chinatown, past the
dark windows, Chinese stores and restaurants, a region that, deserted
now, appeared in the early morning quiet ominous rather than peaceful.
Dark alleys opened out frequently--alleys which coiled like snakes past
cellar entrances, noisome rears of tottering tenements, to
grease-fingered doors as impassive as the stolid faces of guards who
drowsed behind them asleep to all sav