eparture with the episode in my room, to declare that the floor clerks
had been called from their posts for a set purpose, and the halls
deliberately cleared for the thief, were flights of fancy that were
beyond me. The more fool I!

By the time I saw the last of the adventure I began that night--it was
all written in the nth power, and introduced in more or less important
roles the most charming girl in the world, the most spectacular hero of
France, the cleverest secret-service agent in the pay of the fatherland,
and I sometimes ruefully suspected, the biggest imbecile of the United
States in the person of myself--I knew better than to call any idea
impossible simply because it might sound wild. But at the moment my
education was in its initial stages, and turning with a shrug from three
scowling faces, I led my friendly bluecoat a little aside.

"I've no more time to-night to spend thief-catching, Officer," I told
him. I had just recalled my dinner, now utterly ruined, and Dunny,
probably at this instant cracking walnuts as fiercely as if each one
were the kaiser's head. "But I'm an amateur in these affairs, and you
are a master. Before I go, as man to man, what the dickens do you make
of this?"

Flattered, he looked profound.

"I'm thinking, sorr," he gave judgment, "ye had the rights of it. Seein'
as how th' thafe is German, ye'll not set eyes on him more--for divil
a wan here but's of that counthry, and they stick together something
fierce!"

"Well," I admitted, "our thoughts run parallel. Here is something to
drink confusion to them all. And, O'Reilly, I am glad I'm going to sail
to-morrow. I'd rather live on a sea full of submarines than in this
hotel, wouldn't you?"

Touching his forehead, he assented, and wished me good-night and a
good journey; part of his hope went unfulfilled, by the way. That ocean
voyage of mine was to take rank, in part at least, as a first-class
nightmare. The Central powers could scarcely have improved on it by
torpedoing us in mid-ocean or by speeding us upon our trip with a cargo
of clock-work bombs.

CHAPTER III

ON THE RE D'ITALIA

The sailing of the _Re d'Italia_ was scheduled for 3 P.M. promptly, but
being well acquainted with the ways of steamers at most times, above all
in these piping times of war, it was not until an hour later than I left
the St. Ives, where the manager, by the way, did not appear to bid me
farewell.

The thermometer had been falling, and t