th another man about some distant city that each had often visited.
Evidently there was something about which they could not agree, for
their voices rose in angry dispute.

"I'm right in my opinion!" shouted Mr. Pendleton, in his thin, shrill
voice.

"And, sir, let me tell you that _I_ am right!" boomed the fat man in a
growling bass.

"I'll get my map and prove what I say!" cried Mr. Pendleton, springing
from his chair, and starting toward the hall.

The big man's laugh made him increase his speed. The other guests were
amused, but they were not prepared for the next thing that happened.

Old Mr. Pendleton came tearing down the stairs, at the risk of
breaking his neck, his cheeks flushed, and his small, black eyes
blazing.

"It's an outrage! It's disgusting! It's not to be endured!" he
shouted. "My room has been entered, and my belongings tossed about! My
pajamas are spread out on the floor as if someone meant to take a
pattern of them! My watch is soaking in the wash bowl, and my brush
and comb are each in a slipper. My topcoat is out of the window and
sprawling in the sun on the roof of this piazza, and every neck-tie I
own is hanging from the chandelier! I won't stand it!"

He paused for breath, and the woman whom he had vexed a few days
before, was so unwise as to speak:

"It might be well for you to realize just now that women are not the
only ones who are upset when their finery is tossed about. As nothing
was stolen, why complain? Why get excited?"

"Madam! You haven't the least idea of tact," he cried. "If you had
you'd----" but before he could complete his speech, the proprietor
arrived, and a much harder task he had to appease the wrath of Mr.
Pendleton, than that of the fat woman whose room had been entered a
few days before.

The mystery might never have been solved but for something that
occurred on the following morning.

A room on the second floor had windows looking out upon the sea. The
door stood open, and a maid passing along the hall, paused to look in.
Guests were not in the habit of leaving their room doors wide open.
What she saw made her tip-toe softly away to a screen in the hall.

From her position she could watch the inmate of the room.

That room had been hired by the fat man with the big voice who often
talked, and oftener disputed with Mr. Pendleton.

It was easy to touch a button on the wall close beside her, and the
bell-boy responded in a few seconds. The maid held up