: . with distinct increase to his reputation as a philan- thropist; it had come to me in the theater and while riding in the Park; in the brokers' offices where I myself had watched the money the jades had brought me melt swiftly away in a game which I now ruefully admitted I knew less than nothing about. I had felt it in the streets, and that was to be expected. But I had also felt it at the Club, and that was not to be ex- pected and it bothered me more than anything else. Yes, I was under strictest surveillance. But why? That was what this night I had determined to find out. 3 外语下载中心 a touch upon my shoulder, I jumped, and swept my hand halfway up to the little automatic under my left armpit. By that, suddenly I real- ized how badly the mystery had gotten on my nerves. I turned, and grinned a bit sheepishly into the face of big Lars Thorwaldsen, back in New York only a few days from his two years in the Antarctic. "Bit jerky, aren't you, Jim?" he asked. "What's the matter? Been on a bender?" "Nothing like it, Lars," I answered. "Too much city, I guess. Too much continual noise and motion. And too many people," I added with a real candor he could not suspect. "God!" he exclaimed. "It all looks good to me. I'm eating it up—after those two years. But I suppose in a month or two I'll be feeling the same way about it. I hear you're going away again soon. Where this time? Back to China?" I shook my head. I did not feel like telling Lars that my destination was entirely controlled by whatever might turn up before I had spent the sixty-five dollars in my wallet and the seven quarters and two dimes in my pocket. "Not in trouble, are you, Jim?" he looked at me more keenly. "If you are, I'd be glad to—help you." I shook
