t have no fear; I should hesitate to soil an innocent
leaden bullet in your carcass."

"Be gentle," I advised, "or when we meet again I shall feel it my duty
to dull the lustre of your other eye."

"Pah!" he ejaculated. "We are indebted to the French for the word
canaille, which applies to all Americans and Englishmen."

"Now," said I, climbing off the pallet, "I shall certainly do it."

"I warn you not to approach me," he cried, his fingers closing over the
pistol.

"Well, I promise not to do it now," I declared, going over to the
window. I found some satisfaction in his nervousness; it told me that
he feared me. "What place is this; a palace?"

"Answer this question, sir: Why did you cross the frontier when you
were expressly forbidden to do so?"

"I forbidden to cross the frontier?" My astonishment was
indescribable. "Young man, you have made a blunder of some sort. I am
not a Socialist or an Anarchist. I have never been forbidden to cross
the frontier of any country. Your Chancellor is one of the best
friends I have in the world. I went to school with his son."

He rocked to and fro on the table, laughing honestly and heartily.
"You do not lack impudence. Are you, or are you not, the London
correspondent of the New York ------?"

"I certainly am."

"You admit it?" eagerly.

"I see no earthly reason why I should not."

"When did you last visit this city?"

"Several years ago."

"Several years ago?" incredulously.

"Exactly. Have you ever seen me before?"

"No. But it was a little less than two years ago when you were here."

"It is scarcely polite," said I, "to question the veracity of a man you
never saw before and of whom you know positively nothing." Suddenly my
head began to throb again and I grew dizzy. "You hit me rather soundly
with that pistol. Still, your eye ought to be a recompense."

He replied with a scowl.

"Perhaps your name is ------"

"Winthrop, John Winthrop, if that will throw any light on the subject."'

"One name is as good as another," with a smile of unbelief.

"That is true. What's in a name? There is little difference, after
all, between the names of the nobility and the rabble."

"You are determined to irritate me beyond measure," said he. A German
is the most sensitive man in the world as regards his title.

"Grant that I have some cause. And perhaps," observing him from the
corner of my eye, "it is because you smoke such vile tobacco."

Re