to survive. He would be hard to
kill--such a man--elemental; desperately resentful of the mischance.
And I thought I could almost fix the image of him; and he was
big-bodied, full-blooded, with arching great chest and tangled hair and
fierce Saxon blue eyes.

The _carro_ drew up with a sudden jolt; the curtains parted on a
dazzling flood of light.

"Would the gentlemen kindly to step down?"

The gentlemen would, both somewhat surprised at having reached the hotel
so soon, but rather more surprised the next moment at finding that this
was not the hotel at all....

We were in an open, wind-blown street on the water front, where the rain
and salt spray drove in our faces and the few lamps showed neither house
nor garden. Beside the sea wall lay an automobile; we could hear the
churn of its engine, and its headlight split the dark in a sharp wedge
and threw a bright zone against the high stone embankment across the
road. Midway, and just before us, stood the one who welcomed us so
suavely.

It was the roulette banker, he of the spade-cut beard and the superior
clothes. He was still superior, in a topper that shone like varnish and
a long cape tucked most jauntily over one arm. And he smiled and smiled,
like a villain downstage with the spot full upon him.

"Now w'ere," he inquired--"w'ere are that damn doubloon?"

He was effective--the sartorial rogue; and doubtless he knew it. He
stroked his beard and thrust his hand to his hip; and behind him on the
embankment his huge shadow moved alike, as if some monstrous power there
was pulling puppet strings upon him.

"Gentlemen, you been kidnap'," he was good enough to explain. "We are
sorry; but it was of a necessitate. If you got away with that gol' piece
you are--'ow you say?--leaving us dished up. Therefore"--he waved a
ringed hand--"therefore, we arrange' to 'esitate you here, so nize and
comfortable."

He would have passed in comic opera anywhere; but the dart of his black
eye was keen, his voice crisp and assured.

I admired him--with reserve; aware that we were lost in a strange city
and that this amiable brigand seemed to know quite well what he was
about. Aware more particularly of the forward-drooping shoulders and
lowering gaze of Robert Matcham.

I felt rather like a man who travels with a box of dynamite--in no
position to kick very hard at any incidental pocket picking along the
road.

"Is this a holdup or only the request of a loan?" I asked.

"We