in person by a friend of Mrs. Stedman. He knew only that she had been
in New York, that she was very poor and in ill health, that she shunned
all of her friends, and was earning her living as the matron of some
sort of a club for working girls. He did not know the name of it.

On the third day there still was no news. On the fourth Lee decided
that the next morning he would advertise. He would say only: "Will
Mrs. Arthur Stedman communicate with Messrs. Fuller & Fuller?" Fuller &
Fuller were his lawyers. That afternoon he remained until six o'clock
at the recruiting office, and when he left it the electric street
lights were burning brightly. A heavy damp snow was falling, and the
lights and the falling flakes and the shouts of drivers and the toots
of taxicabs made for the man from the tropics a welcome homecoming.

Instead of returning at once to his club, he slackened his steps. The
shop windows of Sixth Avenue hung with Christmas garlands, and colored
lamps glowed like open fireplaces. Lee passed slowly before them, glad
that he had been able to get back at such a season. For the moment he
had forgotten the woman he sought, and was conscious only of his
surroundings. He had paused in front of the window of a pawn-shop.
Over the array of cheap jewelry, of banjos, shot-guns, and razors, his
eyes moved idly. And then they became transfixed and staring. In the
very front of the window, directly under his nose, was a tarnished
silver loving-cup. On it was engraved, "Mixed Doubles. Agawamsett,
1910." In all the world there were only two such cups, and as though
he were dodging the slash of a bolo, Lee leaped into the shop. Many
precious seconds were wasted in persuading Mrs. Cohen that he did not
believe the cup had been stolen; that he was not from the Central
Office; that he believed the lady who had pawned the cup had come by it
honestly; that he meant no harm to the lady; that he meant no harm to
Mrs. Cohen; that, much as the young lady may have needed the money Mrs.
Cohen had loaned her on the cup, he needed the address of the young
lady still more.

Mrs. Cohen retired behind a screen, and Lee was conscious that from the
other side of it the whole family of Cohens were taking his
measurements. He approved of their efforts to protect the owner of the
cup, but not from him.

He offered, if one of the younger Cohens would take him to the young
lady, to let him first ask her if she would receive Capta