ite socks and flowery skirts, carrying
refreshments. There were also men in _kimonos_ and cowboy hats, the
former to give the Japanese color and the latter to inform customers
that the American trade was catered to!

"How you goin' to know this American sailor when you find him?" asked
Jimmie, as the boys sat with steaming cups of tea before them.

"I have his photograph," laughed Ned.

"Let's see it!" cried Jack.

"I'll bet it's a mental photograph!" Jimmie went on. "That is the only
kind Ned carries."

"What does he look like?" asked Frank.

"Yes; tell us. We may see him first!" urged Jimmie.

"He's short, and very broad across the shoulders, with one shoulder
lower than the other. He is quite bald, and there is a cicatrice on his
left cheek where a Malay cut him. There is a squint in one of his eyes,
and there is a scar along the ball of his right thumb."

"Quit your kiddin'!" said Jimmie. "You never saw him."

"Pat saw him," was the reply, "and French and some of the military
people at Manila saw him. He left with the man whose acquaintance I want
to make, or just before him."

"Seems like looking for a needle in a haymow," Frank said, "but I'll
wager my hat against a swipe in the jaw that we find him."

"'We!'" repeated Jimmie, with due scorn.

"For instance," Frank said, "what do you think of the fellow over there
talking with the man in the _kimono_ and the derby hat of the vintage of
1880?"

"He's short and broad, and one of his shoulders is higher than the
other," Jimmie replied.

"Don't attract his attention," Ned warned. "He sat there when we came
in, and does not seem to notice us."

"You goin' to geezle him?" asked Jimmie.

"If he were in Manila I certainly should," was the answer, "but it would
never answer here. Look!" the lad added. "He seems to be having trouble
with one of the waiters."

"He's gone broke, I guess," Jimmie said, "an' there's a kick on his
bill."

"An American friend would look pretty good to him now," Ned said
thoughtfully.

There was in the mind of the boy a thought that circumstances were
favoring him. If he could only befriend the man!

"You don't suppose the fellow he came here with left him in the lurch,
do you?" asked Jimmie, something like Ned's thought coming to him. "If
he did, why--"

"That's what I've been thinking," Ned replied, "Anyway, I'm going over
there and have a talk with him."

"Before you blow yourself on him," laughed Jimmie, "look at