“I congratulate you,” I said, “upon the possession of such a unique lodging-house.”

Delora sighed.

“I can assure you,” he said, “that it is more expensive than the finest suite in the Milan.  Still, what would you have?  When one has friends who are too curious, one must receive them in a fitting lodging.”

“You are a very brave man, Mr. Delora,” I said.

“Indeed!” he answered dryly.  “I should have thought that the bravery had lain in another direction!”

I shook my head.

“I,” I said, “am, I fear, a coward.  Even when to-night I started out to keep my appointment with you I had fears.  I was so afraid,” I continued, “that I even went so far as to insure my safety.”

“To insure your safety!” he repeated softly, like a man who repeats words of whose significance he is not assured.

“I admit it,” I answered.  “It was cowardly, and, I am sure, unnecessary.  But I did it.”

His face darkened with anger.

“You have brought an escort with you, perhaps?” he said.  “You have the police outside?”

I shook my head.

“Nothing so clumsy,” I answered.  “There is just my taxicab, which won’t go away unless it is I who says to go, and a little note I left with the hall-porter of the Milan, to be opened in case I was not back in an hour and a half.  You see,” I continued, apologetically, “my nerve has been a little shaken lately, and I did not know the neighborhood.”

“You are discretion itself,” Delora said.  “Some day I will remember this as a joke against you.  Have you been reading Gaboriau, my young friend, or his English disciples?  This is your own city—­London—­the most law-abiding place on God’s earth.”

“I know it,” I answered, “and yet a place is so much what the people who live in it may make it.  I must confess that your five exits, two on to the river, would have given me a little shiver if I had not known for certain that I had made my visit to you safe.”

Delora tried to smile.  As a matter of fact, I could see that the man was shaking with fury.

“You are a strange person, Captain Rotherby,” he said.  “If I had not seen you bear yourself as a man of courage I should have been tempted to congratulate your army upon its freedom from your active services.  You have no more to say to me?”

“Nothing more,” I answered.

“To-morrow morning at eleven o’clock,” Delora said, “you will be arrested for the attempted murder of Stephen Tapilow.”

“It is exceedingly kind of you,” I answered, “to give me this warning.  I will make my arrangements accordingly.”

“One thing,” Delora said, “would change the course of Fate.”

“That one thing,” I remarked, “being that I should not send this cablegram.”

“Exactly!” Delora answered, “in which case you will find your banking account the richer by ten thousand pounds.”