CHAPTER XVII.
On the thirteenth day of March, 1906, Kerns received the following cable from an old friend: "Is there anybody in New York who can find two criminals for me?
I don't want to call in the police.
"J.T.

BURKE." To which Kerns replied promptly: "Wire Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, N.Y." And a day or two later, being on his honeymoon, he forgot all about his old friend Jack Burke.
On the fifteenth day of March, 1906, Mr.Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, received the following cablegram from Alexandria, Egypt: "_Keen, Tracer, New York:_--Locate Joram Smiles, forty, stout, lame, red hair, ragged red mustache, cast in left eye, pallid skin; carries one crutch; supposed to have arrived in America per S.S.
_Scythian Queen_, with man known as Emanuel Gandon, swarthy, short, fat, light bluish eyes, Eurasian type.
"I will call on you at your office as soon as my steamer, _Empress of Babylon_, arrives.

If you discover my men, keep them under surveillance, but on no account call in police.

Spare no expense.
Dundas, Gray & Co.

are my bankers and reference.
"JOHN TEMPLETON BURKE." On Monday, April 2d, a few minutes after eight o'clock in the morning, the card of Mr.John Templeton Burke was brought to Mr.Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, and a moment later a well-built, wiry, sun-scorched young man was ushered into Mr.Keen's private office by a stenographer prepared to take minutes of the interview.
The first thing that the Tracer of Lost Persons noted in his visitor was his mouth; the next his eyes.