heels since yesterday, an' I just gits nex' to it. He follers you up
to th' house back yonder an' there's w'ere I loses him. Seems like
he hung aroun' the porch er porticker, er whatever it is over here,
watchin' you w'en you wuz inside. I don't know his game, but he's
th' guy. An' I know w'ere he is now."

"The dickens you do! You infernal little scoundrel, take me there at
once. Good Lord, Turk, I've got to catch him. These people will
laugh at me for a month if I don't. Are you sure he is Courant? How
do you know? Where is he?" cried Phil, excited and impatient.

"You ain't near bein' keen. He doubled on you, that's w'at he done.
W'en you chased him off on that side street he just leaps over th'
garden wall an' back he comes into a yard. I comes up, late as
usual, just in time t' see him calmly prance up some doorsteps an'
ring th' bell. Wile th' gang an' you wuz lookin' fer him in th'
gutters an' waste paper boxes, he stan's up there an' grins
complackently. Then th' door opens an' he slides in like a fox."

"Where is the house? We must search it from top to bottom."

"Can't do that, Mr. Quentin. How are you goin' to search that house
without a warrant? An' w'at are you goin' to find w'en you do search
it? He's no common thief. He's in a game that we don't know nothin'
about, an' he's got cards up his sleeve clear to th' elbow. Th'
people in that house is his friends, an' he's safe, so w'at's th'
use? I've got th' joint spotted an' he don't know I am nex'. It's a
point in our favor. There wuz a woman opened the door, so she's in
th' game, too. Let's lay low, Mr. Quentin, an' take it cool."