The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-09-13

automobile large case. He set this
on the floor, and his first movement
was to proceed to the glass doors,
thrust them open, survey the space af-
forded, and then point to the table.
Move it," he said tersely, and Lott
carried it into the adjoining apartment.
There was gas there. and the doctor
lit a jet. Then he carried his case
into the room, closed the doors, and
drew from the case a glass head with
air tubes at the top. He sprinkled
some deodorizing acid about the room
from bottle, put on a pair of gloves,
took out a microscope and proceeded
to his strange task
The foreigner paid no attention to
all this. Marvel did not seem par
ticularly interested. We four were
left in the outer room, but could dis
Germ the doctors activities through
the connecting door. I noticed Lott
glide to the side of his master; l
caught the words:
The man is from a banana rails
ing country"
Your sixth sense tells you that,
does it?" responded Marvel lightly.
Then 1t must be South America"
How true that instructive sense of
odor, of which Lott made a theory,
was correct, the examination Of the
satchel by the doctor would soon tell
| The illustrious savant rapidly pulled
| forth its contents. 1t held nothing
| but few worn garments. Selecting
a skull cap from the litter, upon
/ this the doctor focused his micro
scope. There were flashes of finely
mirrored plates and instruments, the
| application of acids, mixture Of the
! scrapings of the wool from the cap,
massed in a little lake of chemicals.
Then the doctor closed the satchel,
| poured a new bottle of some disinfect-
| ing agent over it, and replacing his
analytical gear in its case came out
| into the larger room.
! Peru" he said simply to Marvel.
| Southern part The germs are the
a bacilli, peculiar to that country
alone. And to the falling sickness
/ particularly prevalent there. You will
yet come before the great societies,
Lott" he added admiringly You di-
/ agnosed it rtght-a banana country,
and the pestilential faint. The man
/ should talk Spanish" he supplement-
/ ed. with a keen glance over the for
/ eigner.
But he doesn't" responded Marvel
! 70 ~ do
| Thanks DOCTOR
He glanced at Lott and motioned me
to follow him and Dr. Horn. At the
street Marvel dismissed the latter
with a nod, proceeded along briskly.
/ hailed the first taxi we met, gave
brief direction, and we were whirl-
/ ed away to a street in the foreign
quarter
The taxi halted in front of a row of
old buildings. Their occupants were
homogeneous. One little store bore
window full of more varieties Of sau-
sages than l expected to exist in the
entire world. There was a store given
over to Hungarian wines a Japanese
restaurant and two curio shops.
These were reminders Of world 5
| fair years. of stranded importations
| and Marvel seemed to know them
! like a book. 1t was not five minutes
/ before he reappeared from one of
/ the curiO stores A swarthy man in
fez was with him. We were again
/ hotel.
1t was all so swift, so silent, so i'm
| ressive-MarveIs resistless rush of
ideas and events, carrying me along
irresistibly-that it reminded me of
the changing scenes of a motion pic
ture film. The curio man was usher
ed into the room where we had left
Lott and the other. He viewed the
foreigner with a measuring glance,
and spoke half a dozen words in a
tongue-twisting dialect.
In an instant the foreigner was
transformed. Eyes, frame and soul
seemed to awake. He uttered joy
full cry and flung himself on his knees,
clasping those of the curio man, jab-
bering away twixt sobs of delight and
tears Of relief.
Marvel softly rolled a cigarette
with those deft hands of his which
with equal facility could slip a ring
upon the dainty finger OF debutante
or snap a pair of handouts around the
braWny wrists of a burglar. l knew
he OWNED the end of circumstance
and the beginning Of coherency.
There was a rapid colloquy between
the foreigners Then there was a
whispered conversation carried on by
Marvel and the curio man in a corner
of the room. The latter returned to
the prisoner. Some animated discus
sion ensued And then the foreigner
did a quite remarkable thing
He removed his shoes, and for the
first time l noticed how broad and how
thick were the soles. Their owner
looked appealingly at the curio man,
who nodded reassuringly, as though
promising protection. The former
took a shell-like article from his peck
ct, stripped back the edge of each sole,
tore them lengthWise and from those
hiding places produced two oblong
rigid articles cased and encased in
| cushions of the SOftpSt wool