d across Park Avenue the man on the opposite side of the
street was in instant motion. And Barres, now intensely curious,
walked eastward once more, following all three.

At Lexington Avenue Soane sheered off and, despite the clutch of
Freund, went into a saloon. Freund finally followed.

As usual, across the street the solitary figure had stopped. Barres,
also immobile, kept him in view. Evidently he, too, was awaiting the
reappearance of Soane and Freund.

Suddenly Barres made up his mind to have a good look at him. He walked
to the corner, walked over to the south side of the street, turned
west, and slowly sauntered past the man, looking him deliberately in
the face.

As for the stranger, far from shrinking or avoiding the scrutiny, he
on his part betrayed a very lively interest in the physiognomy of
Barres; and as that young man approached he found himself scanned by a
brilliant and alert pair of eyes, as keen as a fox-terrier's.

In frank but subtly hostile curiosity their glances met and crossed.
Then, in an instant, a rather odd smile glimmered in the stranger's
eyes, twitched at his pleasant mouth, just shaded by a tiny
moustache:

"If you please, sir," he said in a low, amused voice, "you will
not--as they say in New York--butt in."

Barres, astonished, stood quite still. The young man continued to
regard him with a very intelligent and slightly ironical expression:

"I do not know, of course," he said, "whether you are of the city
police, the State service, the Post Office, the Department of Justice,
the Federal Secret Service"--he shrugged expressive shoulders--"but
this I do know very well, that through lack of proper coordination in
the branches of all your departments of City, State, and Federal
surety, there is much bungling, much working at cross purposes, much
interference, and many blunders.

"Therefore, I beg of you not to do anything further in the matter
which very evidently occupies you." And he bowed and glanced across at
the saloon into which Soane and Freund had disappeared.

Barres was thinking hard. He drew out his cigarette case, lighted a
cigarette, came to his conclusions:

"You are watching Freund and Soane?" he asked bluntly.

"And you, sir? Are you observing the stars?" inquired the young man,
evidently amused at something or other unperceived by Barres.

The latter said, frankly and pleasantly:

"I _am_ following those two men. It is evident that you are, also. So
may