oment a well-dressed, narrow-faced, bald-headed, rather
cadaverous man was shown in. He clicked his heels together and bowed
with foreign politeness and with a smile upon his sinister
countenance.

"I have the honor to meet Signor Rayne?" he asked, with a distinctly
Italian accent.

"That is my name," replied Rudolph inquiringly.

"Good! Then you will recognize me, and my name upon my letter in which
I have asked for this private interview."

"No. I certainly do not," he said. "I have no knowledge of ever
meeting you before!"

"Ah!" laughed the stranger. "The signore's memory is evidently at
fault. I--I hesitate to refresh it--before this gentleman," and he
glanced at me.

"Oh! you need not mind. Mr. Hargreave is my secretary, and knows all
my confidential affairs," said Rayne, assuming an air of _bonhomie_,
though I knew he was greatly perturbed by his visitor.

"Then may I be permitted to remind you of our meeting at the Bristol
Cafe, in Copenhagen, on that July night two years ago, and what
happened to Henri Gerard, the Marseilles shipowner, later that same
night? True, we never spoke together, for you posed as a stranger to
my friends. But you were pointed out to me. You surely cannot ignore
it?"

"I have never been to Copenhagen in my life," protested Rayne. "What
do you suggest?"

"The truth; one that you know well, signore, notwithstanding your
denials. You are the man known as 'The Golden Face,'" declared the
stranger bitterly, pointing his finger at him. "You neither forget me
nor my name, Luigi Gori, for you have much cause to remember it--you
and your friend Stevenson, otherwise Duperre."

Rayne turned furiously upon his visitor, and said:

"I am in no mood to discuss anything with you. So get out! You wished
to see me privately, and I have granted you this interview. I don't
know your name or your business, nor do I want to know them! You seem
to be trying to claim acquaintance with me, and----"

"Pardon me, but I do so, Signor Rayne," laughed the dark-eyed man. "It
has taken me two years to trace you, and at last I find you here! I
came at this hour because I thought I would find you apart from your
honorable family."

"What rubbish are you talking?" demanded Rayne.

"Rubbish!" echoed the stranger. "I am talking no rubbish. I am simply
reminding you of a very serious and secret matter, namely, the
mysterious end of Monsieur Gerard, of the Chateau du Sierroz in the
Jura, and of the Avenue