n. The car raced
away through the "cut," up the declivity, and dropped me at the foot of
the tower. The room-mate referred me to a locomotive engineer and,
being a towerman, gave me the exact location of his engine. I found it
at the foot of Cucaracha slide with a train nearly loaded. By the time
the engineer had added his whit of information, we were swinging around
toward the Pacific dump. I dropped off and, climbing up the flank of
Ancon hill, descended through the hospital grounds.

Where the royal palms are finest and there opens out the broadest view
of Panama, Ancon, and the bay, I gave myself five minutes' pause, after
which a carriage bore me to a shop near Cathedral Plaza where
second-hand goods are bought--and no questions asked. On the way back
to Ancon station I visited two similar establishments.

I had been lolling in the swivel-chair a full ten minutes, perhaps,
when the telephone rang. It was "the Captain" calling for me. When I
reached the third-story back he handed me extradition papers to the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs in Panama. A half-hour later, wholly
outstripping the manana idea, I had signed a receipt for the Jap in
question and transferred him from Panama to Ancon jail. Whereupon I
descended to the evening passenger and rode to Pedro Miguel for five
minutes' conversation, and caught the labor-train Panamaward. At
Corozal I stepped off for a word with the officer on the platform and
the labor-train plunged on again, after the fashion of labor-trains,
spilling the last half of its disembarking passengers along the way.
Ten minutes later the headlight of the last passenger swung around the
curve and carried me away to Panama.

That might have done for the day, but I had gathered a momentum it was
hard to check. Not long after returning from the police mess to the
swivel chair a slight omission in the day's program occurred to me. I
called up Corozal police station.

"What?" said a mashed-potato voice at the other end of the wire.

"Who's talking?"

"Policeman Green, sah."

"Station commander there?"

"No, sah. Station commander he gone just over to de Y. M. to play
billiards, sah. Dey one big match on to-night."

Of course I could have "got" him there. But on second thoughts it would
be better to see him in person and clear up at the same time a little
matter in one of the labor camps, and not run the risk of causing the
loss of the billiard championship. Besides Corozal is cooler to