, the sky had melted through the
entire gamut of colors, and finally settled into a blinding golden
blue. A newsboy clicking out of space like a locust, shouted "Extra!"
Donaldson gave little heed to the cry until he heard the word
"Riverside," and caught the blatant headlines, "Another robbery." With
an interest growing out of Saul's connection with the case, he skimmed
through the story.

Then he tossed his paper away and took his course back to the hotel,
glad to forget that sordid bit of drama, in the movement of the crowd
now forcing its way to work. But something was lacking in the
spectacle this morning. The play of light and color he still saw, the
vibrancy of it he still felt, the dramatic quality of it he still
appreciated, but still with the consciousness that it lacked
something--that it had gone a bit flat. He no longer felt that
princely sense of superiority to it--as though it were a gorgeous
pageant upon which he was a mere onlooker. He felt now a harrying
sense of responsibility towards it. It was as though they called him
to join them. He quickened his pace. He must get back to the hotel
and see if any message awaited him.

He caught his breath--he must get back to her. That was it. That was
what the hurrying passers-by had called to him. Get back to her--what
did the morning count until she became a part of it? It was because
she had placed the red-blooded actuality of life before his eyes in
contrast to the superficial picturesqueness of its expression as he had
viewed it yesterday that the show had lost its vividness. She was
making him see it again with eyes as they were at twenty. He recoiled.
That way lay danger. He must put himself on guard. But from that
moment he had but one object in mind--to get back to her as soon as
possible.

A telephone message waiting him from Chung reported that no trace could
be found of the boy.

He jumped into a cab and went at once to the Arsdale house. Miss
Arsdale herself came to the door, her eyes heavy from lack of sleep but
her face lighting instantly at sight of him.

"You have news?" she exclaimed.

"No," he answered directly.

She was a woman with whom one might be direct.

"No news may be good news," he added. "They have n't been able to
locate him in Chinatown. I don't think there is a nook there in which
he could hide from those people."

"Then," she exclaimed, "he has gone to Cranton."

"Then," he answered deliberately,