and
shaken sensibilities.

Dan noted his mistress' profound despondency, but ventured no remark
until she addressed him just as they reached the bridge once more.

"Dan, you drove a car once for a detective agency, you told me. Did
you ever do any detective work yourself? Do you know anything of their
methods?"

"I do, Miss!" he responded promptly, a sparkle dawning in his eyes.
"Not that I ever did any of it, but I used to watch the other fellers
at work and I'm thinking I could go them one better at it. I've seen
them make some bonehead plays, in my time, and some wonderful hits,
too, I'll admit that."

"Do you want to try a little of it for me?" Willa asked. "An old
Spanish woman disappeared early this morning from that house back on
Second Place, and I want her found without delay. It's she whom those
other men are after; she used to live with her grandson, a hunchback,
in that cottage upon the Parkway. There will be double wages in it for
you while you're working on it, and a thousand dollars reward if you
find her and bring her to me."

She went on to describe Tia Juana, and Dan listened in rapt attention
to every detail, fired with instant enthusiasm for the new job.

"You leave it to me, Miss!" he announced confidently when she had
finished. "I'll get into that house to-morrow, one way or another, and
have a talk with the landlady and the kid. I'll soon find out if they
know more than they've told. In the meantime, I'll make the round of
the hospitals to-night and have a look-in at headquarters to see if
she's turned up missing. Those fellers trailing us this afternoon
don't make it look as if they or the man they're workin' for could have
got hold of her already and there's a chance that she just wandered
off, like, on her own hook. I'll let you know the minute I've got a
line on her. Wish I spoke her lingo!"

"Oh, Tia Juana understands English well enough when she wants to, and
speaks it, too, but only when necessity compels it. She hates
everything American but me. I--I could not bear to think of her
wandering about, destitute and dazed and freezing in this storm! Dan,
you must find her for me!"

The erstwhile chauffeur promised, with extravagant protestations of
assurance, and it was evident that he was in thorough earnest, with
illimitable faith in his own powers.

His attitude of mind was infectious and when Willa descended before the
Halstead house her own natural buoyancy of th