Part 22 (2/2)

'Whatever's the matter with you?' I cried 'You've mistaken the house, my lad I'm called Hanau-Richard Hanau-and my partner's Mr John S Blenkiron He'll be here presently Never knew anyone of the na a tobacconist in Denver City'

'You have never been to Rustchuk?' he said with a sneer

'Not that I know of But, pardon me, Sir, if I ask your name and your business here I'm darned if I'm accustomed to be called by Dutch names or have my word doubted In entle its effect His stare began to waver, and when he next spoke it was in a more civil tone

'I will ask pardon if I'o was at Rustchuk, a o I was tossing in a dirty little hooker co from Constanza Unless Rustchuk's in the middle of the Black Sea I've never visited the townshi+p I guess you're barking up the wrong tree Co passports Say, do you come from Enver Damad?'

'I have that honour,' he said

'Well, Enver is a very good friend of htest citizen I've struck this side of the Atlantic'

Thedown, and in another one But at that moment, by the crookedest kind of luck, Peter entered with a tray of dishes He did not notice Rasta, and walked straight to the table and plumped down his burden on it The Turk had stepped aside at his entrance, and I saw by the look in his eyes that his suspicions had become a certainty For Peter, stripped to shi+rt and breeches, was the identical shabby little co

I had never doubted Rasta's pluck He ju at my head

'Bonne fortune,' he cried 'Both the birds at one shot' His hand was on the latch, and hison the stairs

He had what you call the strategic advantage, for he was at the door while I was at the other end of the table and Peter at the side of it at least two yards from him The road was clear before hi step forward, not knohat I ht But Peter was before o of the tray, and now, as a boy skims a stone on a pond, he ski the door with one hand while he kept ot the contrivance fairly in the face A pistol shot cracked out, and the bullet went through the tray, but the noise was drowned in the crash of glasses and crockery The next second Peter had wrenched the pistol froripped his throat

A dandified Young Turk, brought up in Paris and finished in Berlin, h-and-tue There was no need for me to help him Peter had his oay, learned in a wild school, of knocking the sense out of a foe He gagged him scientifically, and trussed him up with his own belt and two straps froerous to let go,' he said, as if his procedure were thein the world 'He will be quiet now till we have ti at the door That is the sort of thing that happens in melodrama, just when the villain has finished off his job neatly The correct thing to do is to pale to the teeth, and with a rolling, conscience-stricken eye glare round the horizon But that was not Peter's way

'We'd better tidy up if we're to have visitors,' he said cal oak Gerht in in sections, for coh the door It was empty now, but for Blenkiron's hatbox In it he deposited the unconscious Rasta, and turned the key 'There's enough ventilation through the top,' he observed, 'to keep the air good' Then he opened the door A nificent kavass in blue and silver stood outside He saluted and proffered a card on which ritten in pencil, 'Hilda von Einee my clothes, but the lady was behind him I saw the black h uest in a roolass and a senseless man in the cupboard

There are soant that they key up the spirit towhen that stately lady stepped over my threshold

'Madaown and strident pyja fro My servant has just upset a tray of crockery, and I fear this room's no fit place for a lady Allow me three minutes to ravely and took a seat by the fire I went intoby the other door In a hectic sentence I bade hiet Rasta's orderly out of the place on any pretext, and tell hiarments, and came out to find my visitor in a brown study

At the sound of my entrance she started fro robe of fur from her slim body

'We are alone?' she said 'We will not be disturbed?'

Then an inspiration ca to Blenkiron, did not see eye to eye with the Young Turks; and I had a queer instinct that Rasta could not be to her liking So I spoke the truth

'I ht I reckon he's feeling pretty uncomfortable At present he's trussed up on a shelf in that cupboard'