at any moment
to pay for a special train across Europe, or to bribe the entire working
staff of a cable office. From his breast-pocket he took a blue
linen envelope, and allowed the Jew to see that it was filled with
twenty-pound notes. "I have means outside my pay," said Ford.

"I would give almost any price to the man who can cure me." The eyes of
the Russian flashed avariciously.

"I will arrange the terms to suit you," he exclaimed. "Your case
interests me. Do you See this mirage only at sea?"

"In any open place," Ford assured him. "In a park or public square, but
of course most frequently at sea."

The quack waved his great hands as though brushing aside a curtain.

"I will remove the illusion," he said, "and give you others more
pretty." He smiled meaningfully--an evil, leering smile. "When will you
come?" he asked. Ford glanced about him nervously.

"I shall stay now," he said. "I confess, in the streets and in my
lodgings I am frightened. You give me confidence. I want to stay near
you. I feel safe with you. If you will give me writing-paper, I will
send for my things."

For a moment the Jew hesitated, and then motioned to a desk. As Ford
wrote, Prothero stood near him, and the reporter knew that over his
shoulder the Jew was reading what he wrote. Ford gave him the note,
unsealed, and asked that it be forwarded at once to his lodgings.

"To-morrow," he said, "I will call up our Embassy, and give my address
to our Naval Attache.

"I will attend to that," said Prothero.

"From now you are in my hands, and you can communicate with the outside
only through me. You are to have absolute rest--no books, no letters,
no papers. And you will be fed from a spoon. I will explain my treatment
later. You will now go to your room, and you will remain there until you
are a well man."

Ford had no wish to be at once shut off from the rest of the house. The
odor of cooking came through the hall, and seemed to offer an excuse for
delay.

"I smell food," he laughed. "And I'm terrifically hungry. Can't I have a
farewell dinner before you begin feeding me from a spoon?"

The Jew was about to refuse, but, with his guilty knowledge of what was
going forward in the house, he could not be too sure of those he allowed
to enter it. He wanted more time to spend in studying this new patient,
and the dinner-table seemed to offer a place where he could do so
without the other suspecting he was under observation.

"My assoc