s nothing to the lost unit in London, and it will take
time. I'm not a magazine detective, Mr. Upton; if you want a sixpenny
solution for soft problems, don't come to me!"

At an earlier stage the ironmaster would have raised his voice and
repeated that this was a serious matter; even now he looked rather
reproachfully at Eugene Thrush, who came back to business on the spot.

"I haven't asked you for a description of the boy, Mr. Upton, because it's
not much good if we've got to keep the matter to ourselves. But is there
anything distinctive about him besides the asthma?"

"Nothing; he was never an athlete, like my other boys."

"Come! I call that a distinction in itself," said Mr. Thrush, smiling
down his own unathletic waistcoat. "But as a matter of fact, nothing
could be better than the very complaint which no doubt unfits him for
games."

"Nothing better, do you say?"

"Emphatically, from my point of view. It's harder to hide a man's asthma
than to hide the man himself."

"I never thought of that."

It was impossible to tell whether Thrush had thought of it before that
moment. The round glasses were levelled at Mr. Upton with an inscrutable
stare of the marine eyes behind them.

"I suppose it has never affected his heart?" he inquired nonchalantly; but
the nonchalance was a thought too deliberate for paternal perceptions
quickened as were those of Mr. Upton.

"Is that why you sent round the hospitals, Mr. Thrush?"

"It was one reason, but honestly not the chief."

"I certainly never thought of his heart!"

"Nor do I think you need now, in the case of so young a boy," said Thrush
earnestly. "On the other hand, I shouldn't be surprised if his asthma
were to prove his best friend."

"It owes him something!"

"Do you know what he does for it?"

"Yes, I do," said Mr. Upton, remembering the annoying letter he seemed to
have received some weeks before. "He smokes, against his doctor's
orders."

"Do you mean tobacco?"

"No--some stuff for asthma."

"In cigarettes?"

"Yes."

"Do you know the name?"

"I have it here."

The offensive letter was not only produced, but offered for inspection
after a precautionary glance. Thrush was on his feet to receive it in
outstretched hand. Already he looked extraordinarily keen for his bulk,
but the reading of the letter left him alive and alert to the last
superfluous ounce.

"But this is magnificent!" he cried, with eyes as round as their glasse