d in
through the place from which I had taken it. I could see into the next
room! I pulled the table to one side, and there, just where the drawer
had touched the door against which it had stood, was an oblong opening
cut through the woodwork of the door itself. I was down-stairs in an
instant. Gentlemen, the grand duke had gone to Philadelphia that very
morning. No such person as Prince Zaroguine lodged in the hotel. The
clerk came upstairs with me. 'That room,' he said, 'is occupied by a
Frenchman, and the adjoining room belongs to a man who registered from
Boston. Why, that's his picture there!' he exclaimed, pointing to the
picture of the grand duke. 'I did not even know that they were
acquainted. But they will be back; they have left their things; they
haven't even paid their bills.' I did not wait for their return: if I
had I might be waiting still. But I took the photograph, and down to
Inspector Byrnes I posted. 'That,' said he, 'that is the picture of one
of the 'cutest rogues in the land. He has as many names as the Czar of
Russia himself.' And the original of that picture--Gentlemen,
here,--Mr. Leigh, here,--colonel, here is the picture itself. I have
kept it with me ever since. The original of that picture sits before
you. Hold on to him, colonel. Jones, if you move I'll put a bullet
through you. Mr. Leigh, do you ring for the police. Hold him, colonel.
Disgorge, you scoundrel, disgorge! I have got you at last!" And then,
before the astonished gaze of Alphabet Jones, Colonel Barker faded in a
mist, Mr. Fairbanks lost his rotundity, his black coat changed to a blue
swallow-tail with brass buttons, he grew twenty years younger, and, so
far from being violent, he seemed rather apologetic than otherwise.

"It's six o'clock, sir," he said. "Will you order anything before the
bar closes?"

Alphabet blinked his eyes. He was lying in a cramped position on the
sofa. He was uncomfortable and very hot. He pulled himself together and
looked around. Save for the waiter and himself, the room was deserted.

"Is there any baccarat going on upstairs?" he asked.

"No, sir; the gentlemen are just going away."

"Well, well," he mused, "that was vivid. H'm! I'll work it up as an
actual occurrence and send it on to the _Interstate_: it will be good
for the two hundred and fifty which I meant to make at baccarat.--I say,
waiter, get me a Remsen cooler, please."

A MAID OF MODERN ATHENS.

"It was this way," she said