was ashamed."

Armitage returned the electrician's gaze for a second. He was at a
loss. There was a slight resemblance between Harris and the Prince, to
be sure. Then, suddenly, as he recalled the incident at the Grand
Central Station and his fears of the previous evening, a wave of anger
swept over him and he thrust his face belligerently toward the workman,
the muscles of his right shoulder calling nervously for action.

"Yeasky," he said, "you are lying. Who do you think you are up
against,--a child?" He shook his finger in the man's face. "Now
quick; tell me what business you had with that man." Yeasky drew
himself up with an air of offended dignity not altogether compatible
with his putative station in life. Armitage noticed it and pressed on.

"Do you hear?" he said in a low tense voice. He was already past
saving; he had never been a diplomat. "Hurry up, speak, or I 'll knock
your Polack head off."

Before the man could reply, Thornton, who had hurried up, interposed.

"What's the matter, Jack? Did this gentleman have the misfortune to
demand all of the sidewalk?"

Armitage replied over his shoulder.

"You go along, Joe, and leave this to me. I saw this man trying to
talk to that Russian Prince--and he's employed on confidential work in
the shops."

"I know, Jack," said Thornton soothingly, placing his hand on
Armitage's shoulder. "But it is n't policy to get into a street fight
about it, you know, old chap."

"It wouldn't be a fight," began Armitage sneeringly. He turned
suddenly toward Yeasky. "I have been pestered and worried for a week
now. I know I was shadowed in New York. Now that I 've a clue I am
not going to let go of it."

"Of course not," said Thornton, "but you don't want to go off half
cocked. Remember you were up all last night. Just heave to a second.
Has anything happened at the shops?"

"No," said Armitage, cooling a bit, "not that I know of. But this
fellow's doing inside work here on the torpedo and I saw him talking to
that Russian."

"Talking?"

"I mean he tried to. He says he thought the man was Harris, and he
wanted to ask him about some coils. That was too fishy for me."

"Did the Prince talk to him?"

"No; snubbed, ignored him."

"Oh," smiled Thornton. "Well, I say, Jack, honestly I think you might
be wrong. Harris does suggest that Prince chap; I thought so in
church. Of course you can decide about this fellow's future in the
shops, as you