ributed to a confusion not unshared by my three friends.

"It's a darned funny coincidence," said Tommy, in an awed voice. "But,
Jack, you don't think more seriously of it, do you?"

"Would we be chasing these people if I didn't?" I temporized with
another question.

He seemed to be troubled, glancing toward the thoughtful professor as
if expecting him to speak, and when this was not forthcoming he asked
again:

"Well, friend gezabo, what do you think?"

The little scientist lowered his pipe, sighed and impressively answered:

"It is not given to all men to see this invisible agency at work."

The profoundly solemn way he said this made Tommy's eyes grow round.
Ghost and mystery tales imparted during his childhood by black mammies
and other negro servants had endowed him with a considerable amount of
superstition that not infrequently prevailed against his better
judgment. So now, when the erudite Monsieur treated my experience with
reverence, even introducing an element of mysticism, Tommy wavered.

"Whiz-bang! You don't really believe that spooky stuff, do you?"

"To my knowledge," Monsieur answered, "I have seen one case. You have
heard me speak of Azuria. Well, many years ago a friend of mine,
daughter of our King Christopher, fell to worrying about her cousin, a
profligate who divided his time between the palace and Paris. As a
punishment for various escapades the King had curtailed his allowance to
a mere pittance, yet he seemed in spite of this to have as much money as
before. It was this fact that worried my friend--the fear of a scandal.

"One night she dreamed that her child, a girl of nearly three, was being
kidnaped. She arose in her sleep to follow, walking the length of the
palace, and awoke to find herself in the cousin's room--standing,
indeed, behind his chair as he bent beneath a shaded lamp earnestly
working on a plate for spurious money. Instantly she threatened to
expose him to the King.

"Well, to shorten a long story, that night he did actually kidnap the
child, leaving a note to my friend in which he suggested a compromise.
But there was no compromise with villainy in her make-up. The old King
was much affected. Yet there were things in the air at that time,
delicate situations of state, which demanded consideration. The
kidnaping, if made public, would have produced a most disquieting effect
in certain quarters. Our treaty with a powerful state had just been
signed, based on the litt