d me yesterday. Is that a
fair offer?"

"An exceedingly fair one," Kitwater replied, while little Codd nodded
his head energetically to show that he appreciated it. "We had expected
that you would charge more. Of course you understand that it may involve
a chase round half the world before you can find him? He's as slippery
as an eel, and, if he once gets to know that we are after him, he'll
double and twist like a hare."

"He'll not be the first man I have had to deal with who possessed these
characteristics," I answered. "And I have generally succeeded in running
them to earth at the end."

"Let's hope for all our sakes that you will be as successful in this
case," he said. "And now, if I may ask the question, when will you be
ready to begin your search? We shall both feel happier when we know that
you are on his track."

"I am ready as soon as you like," I rejoined. "Indeed, the sooner the
better for all parties concerned. Nothing is to be gained by delay, and
if, as you say, the man has now been in England two months, he may soon
be thinking of getting out of it again, if he has not done so already.
But before I embark on anything, you must answer me some questions."

"A hundred, if you like," he returned. "You have only to ask them and I
will do my best to answer."

"In the first place, I must have a description of this Mr. Gideon Hayle.
What is he like?"

"Tall, thin, with brown hair, and a short, close-cropped beard; he
carries himself erect, and looks about thirty-eight."

"You don't happen to have a photograph of him in your possession, I
suppose?"

"No," replied Kitwater, shaking his head. "Gideon Hayle is not the sort
of man to allow himself to be photographed, and what's more you must
remember that when we reached Nampoung, the station on the frontier of
Burmah, we had scarcely a rag upon our backs. Any goods and chattels we
might once have possessed were in the hands of the Chinese. They had
robbed us of everything, except what that arch thief, Hayle, had already
stolen from us."

As he said this, another look such as I had seen on the occasion of his
previous visit spread over his face.

"The robber, the thief," he hissed, almost trembling in his sudden
excess of rage; "when I get hold of him he shall rue his treachery to
the day of his death. Upwards of a quarter of a million of money he
stole from us, and where is it now? Where is my sight, and where is
Coddy's power of speech? All gone, a