"When we stopped at Dumfries, I got out to get a paper, and as I ran along the platform I bumped into a man who'd come from the cars across the track. He had his hands full of things and said a kind of swear in German, when he dropped them all about."
"In German!" Elsie exclaimed.
"Sure. Well, I didn't want him to miss the train, so I picked up the nearest thing. It was a nice little box that flew open, and I thought it had a clock in it. He got into my car and began to apologize in very good English, and then I asked him what was in the box. I thought he hesitated, but he showed me that it was a compass, with a brass thing that turned around its top and had two little slits for looking through."
"An azimuth; Andrew has one. They're used when you want to be accurate in taking bearings. But go on."
"There's not much more. He was rather a charming man and had been in America. We talked all the way to Annan, where he got out."
"What was he like?"
"Tall and big with a sunburned face, very light blue eyes, hair between red and brown. He looked like a sailor—a captain or something of the kind, though he was dressed plainly in thick, blue clothes and had a bundle of oil slickers."
"Had he a red mustache?"
"He had none at all, but I guess it would be red if he let it grow. Do you know him?"
"No," Elsie said quietly; "at least, I'm not sure."