im." The fury of the man
who had given him the ducking was still vivid. He had been handled as
a terrier handles a rat.

"Bah!"

"Bah as much as you please. I picked you out of the gutter one night
in Rangoon, after roughing it with half a dozen Chinamen, and saved
your wad. I've not your reach or height, but I can lay about some.
He'll kill you. And why not? He wouldn't be any worse off than he is."

"I tell you he's yellow. And with a hundred-thousand in his clothes,
he'll be yellower still."

A hundred thousand. Craig frowned and gazed out to sea. He had
forgotten all about the windfall. "Let's go and have a peg," he
suggested surlily.

Immediately upon obtaining her rooms at Raffles Hotel in Singapore (and
leaving Martha there to await the arrival of the luggage, an imposing
collection of trunks and boxes and kit-bags), Elsa went down to the
American Consulate, which had its offices in the rear of the hotel.
She walked through the outer office and stood silently at the
consul-general's elbow, waiting for him to look up. She was dressed in
white, and in the pugree of her helmet was the one touch of color,
Rajah's blue feather. With a smile she watched the stubby pen crawl
over some papers, ending at length with a flourish, dignified and
characteristic. The consul-general turned his head. His kindly face
had the settled expression of indulgent inquiry. The expression
changed swiftly into one of delight.

"Elsa Chetwood!" he cried, seizing her hands. "Well, well! I am glad
to see you. Missed you when you passed through to Ceylon. Good
gracious, what a beautiful woman you've turned out to be! Sit down,
sit down!" He pushed her into a chair. "Well, well! When I saw you
last you were nineteen."

"What a frightful memory you have! And I was going to my first ball.
You used the same adjective."

"Is there a better one? I'll use it if there is. You've arrived just
in time. I am giving a little dinner to the consuls and their wives
to-night, and you will add just the right touch; for we are all a
little gray at the temples and some of us are a trifle bald. You see,
I've an old friend from India in town to-day, and I've asked him, too.
Your appearance evens up matters."

"Oh; then I'm just a filler-in!"

"Heavens, no! You're the most important person of the lot, though
Colonel Knowlton . . ."

"Colonel Knowlton!" exclaimed Elsa.

"That's so, by George! Stupid of me. You came do