aid anything about arrest?"

The man held up his manacled hands.

"Ah, that is a part of my amusement; but here, let's see if you know
anything? Are you acquainted with Alphonse Donetti?"

A look of abject terror succeeded the former expression of rage and
disappointment that had distorted Argetti's face, and when our hero saw
this change to a look of terror there came a rapid beating of his own
heart.

"I never heard the name. It is another name of your invention, I think."

The detective laughed and said:

"How strange it is that I so readily invent names of real personages.
Why, I really begin to suspect that your name is truly Argetti."

"Why did you ask about Alphonse Donetti?"

"Then you do know him?"

"No, but as you have mentioned that name it may aid me in explaining
some grave mistake that has been made in my arrest."

"Oh, there is no such person as Donetti. I was fooling you--hee, hee,
hee--but don't you know why the irons were put on you?"

"I do not."

"You have a short memory."

"My memory don't aid me in that direction."

"It don't?"

"No."

"Then you must forget that without provocation you set to murder me, and
you have the cheek to ask why you are arrested, and intimate there has
been a mistake. No, no, there has been no mistake. You were arrested for
an assault upon me--an attempt to murder me."

"But you are an intruder in my house--you may be a robber."

"I beg your pardon, I was introduced into your house, and you rather
inveigled me here. I didn't know before, but now I begin to suspect that
you are a very bad man. It is possible that you have committed a very
serious crime in Italy, or you wouldn't be so infernally sensitive--hee,
hee, hee!"

When our hero made an allusion to a possible crime in Italy the man
actually groaned, but said nothing.

Our hero had his prisoner, and the question arose, What should he do
with him? He had started out alone; he had no one to aid him. For some
time he meditated. It was necessary to have some charge upon which to
arrest the man, and he determined to carry out a bold proceeding. He
tied and bound his man, so he could not move. Indeed, without assistance
it would have been impossible for him to get free, and during the
process, Argetti, as we will call him, said:

"You will regret what you are doing. I am a person of some quality, and
you will be held to a bitter responsibility."

"Very well, I like to hold responsibilities, that