k it's quite unjustified. Do I look dangerous?"

"No," she said with a twinkle, "if you did, I shouldn't have ventured
to speak to you. On the contrary, you have a candid air that ought to
banish distrust. Of course, I don't know if it's deceptive."

"You have to know people for some time before you understand them, but,
on the whole, I imagine I'm harmless," Foster replied. "That's what
makes it galling. If I had, for example, a part in some dark plot, I
couldn't resent being watched. As it happens, I merely want to get as
much innocent pleasure as possible out of a holiday, and feel vexed
when people won't let me."

The girl gave him a quick, searching look, and then said carelessly,
"One can sympathize with you; it is annoying to be watched. But after
all, Edinburgh's rather dull just now, and the cold winds are trying to
strangers."

"Is this a hint that I ought to go away?"

"Do you take hints?" she asked with a smile. "Somehow I imagine you're
rather an obstinate man. I suppose you took the packet to Newcastle?"

"I did," Foster admitted in an apologetic voice. "You see, I promised
to deliver the thing."

"And, of course, you kept your word! Well, that was very nice of you,
but I wouldn't make any rash promises while you stay in this country.
Sometimes they lead one into difficulties. But I must go."

She left him with a friendly smile, and he sat down again in a
thoughtful mood. It looked as if she had had an object in talking to
him, and she had learned that he had gone to Newcastle and had since
been watched. He gathered that she thought the things had some
connection, though her remarks were guarded. Then she had given him
another hint, which he meant to act upon.

Leaving the tea-room, he walked for a short distance and then stopped
on the pavement in Princes Street and looked about. It was dark, but a
biting wind had cleared the air. At one end of the imposing street a
confused glimmer marked the neighborhood of the Caledonian station, and
when one looked the other way a long row of lights ran on, and then
curving round and rising sharply, ended in a cluster of twinkling
points high against the sky. The dark, blurred mass they gathered
round was the Castle rock, and below it the tall spire of the Scott
monument was faintly etched against the shadowy hollow where the
gardens sloped away.

Now he had resolved to leave the city, Foster felt its charm and half
resented being, in a m