tranger laughed boyishly. "Not too loud or you'll give the show
away. I followed you. The maid raised no objection. She thought we were
together--which was exactly what I intended."

"But what do you want? What right have you here?"

"Want! I know what I want. As to my right, that's problematic."

He turned his back on Tabs and commenced to move about the room, picking
things up and examining them with a purposeful curiosity. He showed no
fear, yet in all his movements there was a calculated stealth. Tabs
watched him in amazement, wondering what he ought to do. If it came to
grappling with him, unless he carried fire-arms, there was little doubt
as to who would get the better of the contest. The man might be a
lunatic, a blackmailer, a burglar; by his odd mode of entry, he had laid
himself open to every suspicion. But he looked perfectly normal; and if
he had been a burglar, he surely would have selected an opportunity when
no other man was present. It was an awkward situation, this being shut
up alone in a husbandless woman's house with an unknown intruder. It
seemed to be an occasion for tact rather than the possible fuss of
police interference.

At this moment the stranger made a discovery.

He had been examining the five silver photograph-frames, each in turn,
with close attention. With his back towards Tabs he remarked, "It looks
as though she hadn't forgotten him. Five reminders of his homely mug and
not a solitary one of the also-rans! Numbers Two and Three couldn't have
made such a deep impression." He caught his breath in a nervous shudder.
"It's queer. Everything's queer when one's just come back. One's so
changed that he could court his own wife without being recognized. You,
too, were out there I should judge by the way you limp. I wonder whether
you've got over the queerness yet. I haven't had time----"

From in front of the empty fireplace, Tabs interrupted him. "Look here,
my dear chap, I don't want to be rude and this isn't my house; but
what's your game?"

The stranger turned and smiled. His frank gray eyes were amused and
friendly. "Upon my word, I haven't any game. I'm like yourself--just
paying a visit."

Tabs shook his head and gazed at him fixedly. "It won't do; you know
that. You're a gentleman. Gentlemen don't get into unprotected women's
houses by your kind of methods."

"They don't. That's a fact." He laughed carelessly. "I suppose this is
what comes of having been a prisoner in Germa