drink anything but Cliquot," replied Mr. Pinkerton,
pleasantly.

A servant brought in a bottle and glasses, and I turned the conversation
upon the subject of money. The captain, being a stranger to me, guided
by former experience with Irving & Co. I fancied he might be bribed.
Sometimes the police are susceptible to this form of temptation, and I
was at bay and desperate. I intended to offer him a fortune for a bribe.
If he refused to take it I resolved to shoot him and dash out of the
window, for at my elbow was an open drawer, with a loaded revolver ready
at my hand.

I said: "You know the power and value of money?"

"Yes, and I need and want plenty of it."

Pointing to a trunk I said: "I have a fortune there. Sit where you are
ten minutes, give no alarm, and I will give you $50,000."

Then a scene ensued that if put upon the stage would be deemed
farfetched, if not incredible. When I said this the captain never moved
a muscle, but looked at me seriously, earnestly, then dropped his eyes
to the bottle. As he did so I placed my hand on the revolver. He took
the bottle up, filled his glass, and, looking steadily at me, drank it
off, and, replacing the glass on the stand, coolly remarked:

"Why, sir, that is $5,000 a minute!"

"Yes, and good pay, too," I said.

"But I won't have it!" he interjected, and sprang to his feet as he saw
me make a movement; but I was too quick for him.

I fired point-blank, and down he went as if felled by lightning.

I rushed to the window, when the Venetians were torn violently down, and
one of Curtin's subordinates, revolver in hand, sprang from the outer
darkness through the window into the room, and the others came with the
soldiers. My wife, too, white faced, rushed in from the dining room. A
lively struggle followed, in which Curtin, having risen from the floor,
joined. The struggle was soon over, leaving me a prisoner under close
guard.

My bullet had struck the captain, breaking a rib and glancing off, but
he was game, and when we shortly after departed for the city he rode
with me in the same carriage. I tried to soothe my wife's fears, but it
was attempting the impossible, so we drove away to the city in three
carriages, Mr. P. assuring my wife that I would sleep at the hotel.

By the time we arrived the news had spread among the American colony,
and as the hotel was a sort of American club delegations of my
acquaintances speedily arrived. All were loud in the denuncia