otoriety, Mr. Orme?"

"As a rule, no doubt--but in this instance----"

"No," said Alcatrante firmly, "I really must insist that we let the
matter drop. As for me, I shall return to my hotel. Perhaps you will walk
along with me."

Orme hesitated. "I don't like those thieves to get off without a chase,
_senhor_."

"But, my dear Mr. Orme, they did me no harm."

Orme shrugged his shoulders. "You forget that there was one after me as
well as one after you."

"No, I don't forget that. But don't you see, Mr. Orme? Those two men were
not after our valuables."

"Indeed?"

"Not at all. What they would like is my little friend Poritol's secret."

"But why Japanese?" Orme was puzzled.

"Why, indeed? A cunning Japanese might as easily have got wind of it as
anyone else."

"But why did you say, 'I thought so'?" persisted Orme.

"Did I say that? It must have been because I suspected that only a
Japanese could be so agile as my assailant. But all this is immaterial. I
should have warned you that Poritol's secret is dangerous. You should not
have left your apartments."

"Well, this certainly is a queer kettle of fish," muttered Orme. He was
beginning to feel disgusted with the situation. He did not like
Alcatrante's oily smoothness, and he wondered whether it would not have
been better to hand the bill over to Poritol at the first demand. But it
came to his mind that in a certain degree he stood committed to continue
the policy he had adopted. He had sought adventure; it was coming to him
in full measure.

Together they walked back toward the park entrance. The minister
seemingly exerted himself to regain the ground he had lost with Orme. He
proved an interesting conversationalist--keen, slightly cynical, but not
without an under-note of earnestness.

"You have seen me much abused by your press, Mr. Orme," he said. "That is
natural. I have the interests of my own country to protect, and those
interests are of necessity sometimes opposed to the interests of other
countries. But if your people would be even more patient with us--all we
need is time. There is reason for our persistent to-morrow; for we are
young, and it is a slow process to realize on our resources. That is why
we do not pay our debts more promptly."

Orme said nothing, but he thought of looted South American treasuries, of
exiled presidents squandering their official stealings at Paris and Monte
Carlo, of concessions sold and sold again to rival forei