ll watch the people
around me with great care."

"That will be best, sir."

My poor old housekeeper was always frightening herself at nothing.
"If I see them again," she added, "I will warn you before you set
foot out of doors."

"Agreed!" And I broke off the conversation, knowing well that if I
allowed her to run on, she would end by being sure that Beelzebub
himself and one of his chief attendants were at my heels.

The two following days, there was certainly no one spying on me,
either at my exits or entrances. So I concluded my old servant had
made much of nothing, as usual. But on the morning of the
twenty-second of June, after rushing upstairs as rapidly as her age
would permit, the devoted old soul burst into my room and in a half
whisper gasped "Sir! Sir!"

"What is it?"

"They are there!"

"Who?" I queried, my mind on anything but the web she had been
spinning about me.

"The two spies!"

"Ah, those wonderful spies!"

"Themselves! In the street! Right in front of our windows! Watching
the house, waiting for you to go out."

I went to the window and raising just an edge of the shade, so as not
to give any warning, I saw two men on the pavement.

They were rather fine-looking men, broad-shouldered and vigorous,
aged somewhat under forty, dressed in the ordinary fashion of the
day, with slouched hats, heavy woolen suits, stout walking shoes and
sticks in hand. Undoubtedly, they were staring persistently at my
apparently unwatchful house. Then, having exchanged a few words, they
strolled off a little way, and returned again.

"Are you sure these are the same men you saw before?"

"Yes, sir."

Evidently, I could no longer dismiss her warning as an hallucination;
and I promised myself to clear up the matter. As to following the men
myself, I was presumably too well known to them. To address them
directly would probably be of no use. But that very day, one of our
best men should be put on watch, and if the spies returned on the
morrow, they should be tracked in their turn, and watched until their
identity was established.

At the moment, they were waiting to follow me to police headquarters?
For it was there that I was bound, as usual. If they accompanied me I
might be able to offer them a hospitality for which they would scarce
thank me.

I took my hat; and while the housekeeper remained peeping from the
window, I went down stairs, opened the door, and stepped into the
street.

The two men