not very
successful stockbroker, with a natural longing for adventures which
never came my way. Since then things have altered. I have stumbled
in upon the most curious little chain of happenings which ever
became entwined with the life of a commonplace being like myself.
The net result, for the moment, is this. Every one is trying to
steal from me a certain document which I have in my pocket. I want
to hide it for the night. I cannot go to the police, it is too
late to go back to Chancery Lane, and I have an instinctive feeling
that my flat is absolutely at the mercy of my enemies. May I hide
my document in your room? I do not believe for a moment that any
one would think of searching here."

"Of course you may," she answered. "But listen. Can you see out
into the street without moving very much?"

He turned his head. He had been standing with his back to the
window, and Zoe had been facing it.

"Yes, I can see into the street," he assented.

"Tell me--you see that taxi on the other side of the way?" she
asked.

He nodded.

"It wasn't there when I drove up," he remarked.

"I was at the window, looking out, when you came," she said. "It
followed you out from the Square into this street. Directly you
stopped, I saw the man put on the brake and pull up his cab. It
seemed to me so strange, just as though some one were watching you
all the time."

Laverick stood still, looking out of the window.

"Who lives in the house opposite?" he asked.

"I am afraid," she answered, "that there are no very nice people
who live round here. The people whom I see coming in and out of
that house are not nice people at all."

"I understand," he said. "Thank you, Zoe. You are right. Whatever
I do with my precious document, I will not leave it here. To tell
you the truth, I thought, for certain reasons, that after I had paid
my last call this afternoon I should not be followed any more. Come
back with me and I will give you some dinner before you go to the
theatre."

She clapped her hands.

"I shall love it," she declared. "But what shall you do with the
document?"

"I shall take a room at the Milan Hotel," he said, "and give it to
the cashier. They have a wonderful safe there. It is the best
thing I can think of. Can you suggest anything?"

She considered for a moment.

"Do you know what is inside?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"I have no idea. It is the most mysterious document in the wor