f beauty, letting the moments pass unheeded.

'Fine figure of a woman, eh?'

I started, and came suddenly down to earth, at the sound of one of my
friend's characteristic speeches. He was standing beside me, as
imperturbable of countenance as usual, but looking somewhat blown; and
he dropped upon the bench, and stretched his legs, and pulled off his
hat, like a weary man who means to enjoy a little well-earned rest.

I knew him too well to display any curiosity, and I merely sorted out
from the bundle of letters still unopened in my hand those bearing his
name, and laid them upon his knee, and with merely a nod and smile, by
way of greeting, addressed myself to my own.

The first was a brief business document; the next a schoolboy's
letter, short, of course, from a young brother, my sole living tie and
charge. The third was from our chief, and I saw, upon opening it, that
it was addressed, within, to both of us.

'Dave,' I ventured, 'may I interrupt?'

'You can't,' he replied. 'I've done. They're of no consequence,' and
he thrust the two missives I had given him into his loose side-pocket.
'Blaze away, boy.'

The letter was not long, and, after some minor instructions and some
suggestions, came this passage:

'"I wonder if either of you remembers the case of the Englishman who
wrote us at much length some six months ago concerning his son, 'lost
or missing'--we did not succeed in finding him in New York----"'

'And small wonder,' chuckled Dave, whose memory was a storehouse. 'We
hadn't even the skeleton of a description.'

'"In New York, you remember,"' I read on, '"and it has seemed to me
that you may as well look out for him in your intervals of leisure, if
there are such."'

'Old man's growing sarcastic,' grumbled my friend.

'"It's a good thing, if successful,"' I continued; '"and the Fair is
the best place in the world for a 'hide out.' If the young fellow's
above-ground I'll wager something he's in Chicago now; that is, if he
really did come to America a year ago, as his fond father (?) writes.
I enclose for your further information his letter; and I would be
proud of the fact if you two fellows could unearth him at the
Columbian City. I give you _carte blanche_ for the case."'

'Umph! That means roll up your sleeves and go in.'

I took up the copy of the Englishman's letter. 'Shall I read it?' I
asked, 'or is it----'

'Don't say "engraven on your memory,"' implored Dave. 'Yes--go ahead.'