here to protect the public and look after criminals. He had but
just arrived, and it was because of this that he was without his
officer's badge, which would at once have put those men to rout had it
been worn and displayed to them. Let me tell you now, to prevent
further mistakes, that the detectives upon whom we rely in greatest
emergencies are always to be found in citizen's clothes, and they are
not likely to display a badge, except when necessary.'

Long before the end of this speech consternation was written all over
the face of Adam Camp, but his wife was made of sterner stuff, and
when her better half had stuttered and floundered half through a
sufficiently humble apology, directed, of course, toward myself, she
broke in upon his effort, no whit abashed:

'There, Camp, it's easy enough ter see how we came ter make sech a
mistake, and I'm sure the young man will bear no malice to'ard a
couple of folks old enough ter be his parients. 'Twas them
sharp-lookin' eyes that set me ter noticin' ye, when you was lookin'
over Camp fust off, down to the Administration Building, and when you
went an' sot down on the settee by him, an' then got up an' followed
us so fur, what was I to think? You was a-watchin' us sure enough,
only you meant well by it. But, land sakes! in sech a place, where
everybody is tryin' to look out fur number one, I did what looked my
dooty. I'm willin' to ask yer pardon, though, and I ain't goin' ter
bear no malice.'

Overwhelmed by this magnanimity, I murmured my thanks and complete
satisfaction with her _amende honorable_, and tried to turn the
occasion to such profit as might be by questioning the man a little.

'You were saying that you changed a bill, or were about to do so. Did
the man make any difficulty after I left you?'

'No, sir. He seemed in a kind of a hurry, and made out to be onsartin
whether he could spare so much small money, as he called it. But
finally he counted out a roll of bills, and had me count them after
him.'

'There--in the crowd where you stood?'

'Wal, no. He took us to one side a little--right in behind the place
where the little man was a-sellin' canes--sort of up ag'inst a
partition, and there we made the dicker.'

'And he left you right away?' queried the officer in charge.

'Yes--jest about as quick as he could.'

'And the other,' I asked, 'the man who took you to this agent--the man
with the large Sabbath-school class?'

'Oh! he asked us to go to the