The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII. (of X.)
the cases we are wanted in. If Mr. Carrington says he hasn't been robbed, it isn't our business to prove that he has been. You won't print anything about this?"

   Fetner said he would not. To have done so after that promise would have closed a fruitful source of Tenderloin stories. The reporters left the officer at Broadway and resumed their interrupted walk to supper. "Lots of funny things happen in the Tenderloin," Fetner remarked, in the manner of one dismissing a subject.

   "But," exclaimed Holt, quite as excited as Tommy had been, "I know Carrington."

   "So does every one," answered Fetner, "by name and reputation. He's just a swell—swell enough to be noted. Isn't that all?"

   "He was a couple of classes ahead of me at college," continued Holt. "I didn't know him there—one doesn't know half of one's own class—but his family and mine are old friends, and without troubling himself to know me, more than to nod, he sometimes sent me word to use his horses when he was away. Before I left college and went to work on a Boston paper, Carrington started on a trip around the world. My people heard of him through his people at times, and learned that he was doing a number of crazy things, among them getting lost in all sorts of No-man's-lands. His people were usually asking the State Department to locate him, through the diplomatic and consular services."

   "Then this is one of his eccentricities," commented Fetner.

   "How can you treat it like that?" exclaimed Holt. "I think it is a fascinating mystery, and I'm going to solve it."

   "Not for publication," warned Fetner.

   "For my own satisfaction," declared Holt, with great earnestness.

   When the superintendent of the Quadrangle had shaken

   hands with the officer he turned to Tommy and said: "You go up to Mr. Carrington. He wants to see you."

   "Tommy," said Mr. Carrington, "I think this is a joke on you."

   This view of the event was such a relief to Tommy that he grinned broadly.

   "It is certainly a joke on you. Now, Thomas, did my friend make himself up to look so much like me that you could not have told the difference, even if you were not distracted by the discomfiture of 
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