I was too late. When I
arrived I discovered that this Miss Singleton had gone to the office of
the company and on their advice, after she had reported my death, had
taken the baby with her when she sailed for San Francisco. She had the
address of my brother--Ted's father--and said that she would deliver the
child to them in New York. That's about the end of the story, except
that I was never able to trace Miss Singleton beyond San Francisco. In
Shanghai I came down with typhoid and was delayed three months in
getting back to America. Then I discovered that my little son never
arrived in New York--as far as any one knew--and the result of the
investigations that I carried on through the police and private
detective agencies established only the fact that the young missionary
was on the steamer when it arrived at San Francisco and that she and the
baby disembarked with the other passengers.

"I said that was pretty nearly the end of the story--but you know I've
never quite given up hope of sometime finding that boy of mine."

"Will you let me look at that picture again?" asked Neil Durant.

As the mining engineer took the photograph from his pocket and handed it
to Neil, Teeny-bits asked a question:

"That mark," he said in a voice that was peculiarly tense, "what was it
like--was it--?"

"Yes," said Wolcott Norris, "it _was_ like the mark that I saw on your
shoulder when Doctor Emmons...."

"Look!" Neil Durant suddenly broke in. "I know _now_ where I've seen the
person that resembles this picture--it's _you_, Teeny-bits! Her eyes and
mouth--just look!"

Teeny-bits gazed at the picture and finally raised his eyes to those of
Wolcott Norris. He opened his lips to speak, but no sound came from
them. For the moment his thoughts were too full to find expression in
words.

"It seems--" he said unsteadily after a time, "like something I've been
dreaming, and now I know why I've had such a strange feeling toward
you--just as if you were my older brother--or my--my father. To-morrow
when Neil and I go back to Ridgley, will you come?"

"Yes, Teeny-bits, I'll come," said Wolcott Norris, "and we'll go over to
Greensboro and have a talk with those Chinese that Neil told me about."

Ted Norris jumped to his feet as if he had suddenly come out of a
trance. "By thunder!" he cried, "my head is swimming round in circles,
but I've just enough of a grip on my brains to see that you and I--that
we--oh, shucks!--put it there!" An