will just suit
me--hee, hee, hee!"

Having secured and gagged his man our hero slipped forth from the
cottage. He looked around for the Italian girl. He did not see her, and
he muttered:

"Hang it! I am anchored here; that girl will steal in and release the
man." Even as our hero spoke he heard a shrill scream, and it was the
voice of a female and not very far distant. He started at a run in the
direction from which the scream had come and quickly arrived at a point
where he beheld a man struggling with a woman. Oscar dashed forward, the
man saw him, released the girl, and our hero saw her fall to the ground.
He believed a murder had been committed and he ran past the girl to
secure the murderer. The latter proved fleet of foot, and most
mysteriously disappeared. He vanished as completely as though he had
been suddenly dissolved into air.

"Well, that gets me," he ejaculated, and after standing for some minutes
looking in every direction, he returned to where the girl lay. He
expected to find her dead, but as our hero approached she rose to her
feet.

"Thank heaven!" ejaculated Oscar, "I thought you had been murdered."

"I believe he intended to murder me and he might just as well have
succeeded--my life is forfeited now."

"Your life is forfeited?"

"Yes."

"Why do you say that?"

"Those men suspect me; you have given my life away."

"I have given your life away?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"By your assault upon Argetti. I did not suspect that were an officer.
They will claim that I knew--that I was in league with you, and led
Argetti into the trap."

"Is that man's name Argetti?"

"No, but that is the name you gave him. We will speak of him as
Argetti."

"You know his real name?"

"I do."

"What is his real name?"

"I dare not tell you. I have already forfeited my life."

"Who is the man you were struggling with?"

"One of Argetti's confederates--one of the gang."

"You need not fear to confide in me. You have not forfeited your life.
You shall be protected at all hazards."

"Ah, you do not know."

"Do not know what?"

"The desperate character of these men."

"What relation do you bear to these men?"

"I am an orphan; my parents died in an English poor-house. This man
Argetti adopted me as his child. I have traveled all over the world with
him, but now I must flee away and hide somewhere."

"You need not flee away. Argetti, as we call him, can do you no harm. We
will take care of him."