paid to become my enemy. I had no
personal quarrel with you. You can scarcely blame me, therefore, if I
retaliate when I have an opportunity. I don't know what you may think of
it, but the mere fact of you dining with me to-night is very likely to
go hard with you, so far as your clients are concerned. Would it be a
good advertisement for the famous George Fairfax to have it known that,
while he was taking his clients' money he was dining pleasantly in Paris
with the man they were paying him to find? I laid my trap for you, but I
must confess that I had not very much faith in its success. Your
experience should have made you more wary. A student of human character,
such as you are, should know that the leopard cannot change his spots,
or the tiger his----"

"If you continue in this strain much longer," I said, "I'll endeavour to
stop your tongue, whatever it may cost me. Now, either let me out, or
get out of the room yourself. I want to see no more of you while I am
in this house."

He blew a cloud of smoke, and then said nonchalantly--

"You had better occupy yourself thanking your stars that you are let off
so easily. At one time I was tempted to have you put out of the way
altogether. I am not quite certain it wouldn't be safer, even now. It
could be done so easily, and no one would be any the wiser. I know two
men now in Paris who would gladly run the risk for the sake of the
ill-will they bear you. I must think it over."

"Then think it over on the other side of that door," I said angrily.
"Play the same traitorous trick on me as you did on Kitwater and Codd if
you like, but you shall not stay in the same room with me now."

My reference to Kitwater and Codd must have touched him on a raw spot,
for he winced, and then tried to bluff it off.

"I rather fancy Messrs. Kitwater and Codd will just have such kindly
things to say concerning you in the future as they do about me now," he
said, as he moved towards the door. "And now I will wish you good-bye.
As I leave Paris almost immediately, I don't suppose I shall have the
pleasure of seeing you again. For your own sake I should advise you to
be quiet. I might tell you once and for all that you can't get out. The
door is a stout one, and the windows are exceptionally well barred. The
men to whom I have assigned the duty of looking after you are in their
way honest, though a little rough. Moreover, they are aware that their
own safety depends to a very great extent