somebody, Mr. Keen, whom you are not likely to find." "I doubt it," said Keen pleasantly. Gatewood smiled. "If," he said, "you will undertake to find the person I cannot find, I must ask you to accept a retainer." "We don't require retainers," replied Keen. "Unless we find the person sought for, we make no charges, Mr. Gatewood." "I must ask you to do so in my case. It is not fair that you should undertake it on other terms. I desire to make a special arrangement with you. Do you mind?" "What arrangement had you contemplated?" inquired Keen, amused. "Only this: charge me in advance exactly what you would charge if successful. And, on the other hand, do not ask me for detailed information--I mean, do not insist on any information that I decline to give. Do you mind taking up such an extraordinary and unbusinesslike proposition, Mr. Keen?" The Tracer of Lost Persons looked up sharply: "About how much information do you decline to give, Mr. Gatewood?" "About enough to incriminate and degrade," replied the young man, laughing. The elderly gentleman sat silent, apparently buried in meditation. Once or twice his pleasant steel-gray eyes wandered over Gatewood as an expert, a connoisseur, glances at a picture and assimilates its history, its value, its artistic merit, its every detail in one practiced glance. "I think we may take up this matter for you, Mr. Gatewood," he said, smiling his singularly agreeable smile. "But--but you would first desire to know something about me--would you not?" Keen looked at him: "You will not mistake me--you will consider it entirely inoffensive--if I say that I know something about you, Mr. Gatewood?" "About me? How can you? Of course, there is the social register and the club lists and all that--" "And many, many sources of information which are necessary in such a business as this, Mr. Gatewood. It is a necessity for us to be almost as well informed as our clients' own lawyers. I could pay you no sincerer compliment than to undertake your case. I am half inclined to do so even without a retainer. Mind, I haven't yet said that I will take it." "I prefer to regulate any possible indebtedness in advance," said Gatewood. "As you wish," replied the older man, smiling. "In that case, suppose you draw your check" (he handed Gatewood a fountain pen as the young man fished a check-book from his pocket)--"your check for--well, say for $5,000, to the order of Keen & Co." Gatewood met his eye without wincing; he was in for it now; and he was always perfectly game. He had brought it upon himself; it was his own proposition. Not that he would have for a moment considered the sum as high--or any sum exorbitant--if there had been a chance of success; one cannot compare and weigh such matters. But how could there be any chance for success? 

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