k."

"Why do you wish to kill that signore?" inquired Griggs, calmly.

Stefanone looked up, and the pale lids of his keen eyes were contracted
as he stared hard and long at the other's face.

"What are you saying?" he asked, with a short, harsh laugh. "What is
passing through your head? What have I to do with the Englishman?
Nothing. These are follies!"

And still he gazed keenly at Griggs, awaiting the latter's reply. Griggs
answered him contemptuously in the dialect.

"You take me for a foreigner! You might know better."

"I do not know what you mean," answered Stefanone, doggedly. "It is
Sunday. I am at leisure. I walk to take a little air. It is my affair.
Besides, at this hour, who would follow a man to kill him? It is about
to ring midday. There are a thousand people in the street. Those who
kill wait at the corners of streets when it is night. You say that I
take you for a foreigner. You have taken me for an assassin. At your
pleasure. So much the worse for me. An assassin! Only this was wanting.
It is better that I go back to Subiaco. At least they know me there.
Here in Rome--not even dogs would stay here. Beautiful town! Where one
is called assassin for breakfast, without counting one, nor two."

By this time Griggs was convinced that he was right. He knew the man
well, and all his kind. The long speech of complaint, with its peculiar
tone, half insolent, half of injured innocence, was to cover the
fellow's embarrassment. Griggs answered him in his own strain.

"A man is not an assassin who kills his enemy for a good reason,
Stefanone," he observed. "How do I know what he may have done to you?"

"To me? Nothing." The peasant shrugged his sturdy shoulders.

"Then I have made a mistake," said Griggs.

"You have made a mistake," assented Stefanone. "Let us not talk about it
any more."

"Very well."

Griggs turned away and walked slowly towards the hotel, well aware that
Stefanone was watching him and would think that he was going to warn
Lord Redin of his danger. That, indeed, was Griggs's first impulse, and
it was probably his wisest course, whatever might come of the meeting.
But the Scotchman had made up his mind that he would not see Griggs
under any circumstances, and though the latter had seen him enter the
hotel less than ten minutes earlier, the servant returned almost
immediately and said that Lord Redin was not at home. Griggs understood
and turned away, thoughtfully.

Before he went do