er in this country we sometimes do things in an unusual
way. That's why I am paying you this visit. I have been watching you for
exactly three months and fourteen days."

"Watching me?" Philip repeated.

"Precisely! No idea why, I suppose?"

"Not the slightest."

The detective glanced towards the clock. Barely two minutes had passed.

"Well," he explained, "I got on your tracks quick enough when you skipped
from the Waldorf and blossomed out in a second-rate tenement house as
Merton Ware."

"So I was at the Waldorf, was I?" Philip murmured.

"You crossed from Liverpool on the _Elletania_," the man continued,
"registered at the Waldorf as Mr. Douglas Romilly of the Douglas Romilly
Shoe Company, went to your room, changed your clothes, and disappeared.
Of course, a disappearance of that sort," he went on tolerantly, "might
be possible in London. In New York, to even attempt it is farcical."

"Dear me," remarked Philip, "this is very interesting. Let me ask you
this question, though. If you were so sure of your facts, why didn't you
arrest me at once instead of just watching me?"

The man's eyes were like gimlets. He seemed as though he were trying,
with curious and professional intensity, to read the thoughts in Philip's
brain.

"There is no criminal charge against Douglas Romilly that I know of," he
said.

"There's a considerable reward offered for his discovery," Philip
reminded him.

"I can claim that at any moment," the man replied. "I have had my reasons
for waiting. It's partly those reasons that have brought me here. For one
thing, Mr. Douglas Romilly was supposed to be able to put his hand on a
matter of a hundred thousand dollars somewhere in New York. You haven't
shown many signs up till now, Mr. Ware, of having any such sum in your
possession."

"I see," Philip assented. "You wanted the money as well."

"The creditors of the Douglas Romilly Shoe Company are wanting it pretty
badly," the man proceeded, "but that wasn't all. I wanted to find out
what your game was. That I don't know, even now. That is why I have come
to you. Have I the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Douglas Romilly?"

"I really don't see," Philip protested thoughtfully, "why I should go
into partnership with you in this affair. You see, in the long run, our
interests might not be altogether identical."

Mr. Dane smiled grimly.

"That's a fairly shrewd calculation, Mr. Ware," he admitted. "You ain't
bound to answer any question