"You will not be able to see him before night."

"And will I be compelled to wait until to-night?"

"To see him, yes."

"Can you not go and show me where his house is located, and then I can
call upon him at my leisure?"

"I cannot go with you until to-night."

Again the girl smiled one of her bewildering smiles.

"At what hour shall I come here?"

"At about nine o'clock."

"And then I will surely find him at home?"

"Yes."

"And you will meet me to guide me to his home?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"At the railroad crossing."

"You will be there at nine?"

"I will."

"I will meet you and be very much obliged to you," said our hero, and
raising his hat like an Italian count he walked away.

Oscar understood his risk, but he understood more. He knew that he was
on the track of some one. A great game had been played. He connected all
the little incidents--the face at the window, the dark face of a man
with glittering eyes, then the woman so handily on the stoop of an
adjoining house. Then again her admissions to a false identity, for our
hero had invented both names that he had given the girl. All these
little incidents proved that he had been observed, that he had aroused
a suspicion as to his design, and that the observation and suspicion
could only be aroused in one who feared something--possibly feared being
seen and tracked.

After the girl had seen our hero pass from view, she entered the house
at the window of which Oscar had seen the dark face. In the room was a
desperate-looking man--a man one would fear to meet at night alone, for
every lineament betrayed the man to be a desperate scoundrel.

When the girl returned the man asked, as she entered the room, he
speaking in Italian:

"Who is he?"

"I do not know."

"What is his purpose?"

"I leave you to judge. I will repeat the conversation."

"Do so."

The girl exhibited a wonderful preciseness of memory by repeating every
word that had passed between herself and the stranger. The man listened,
and when the recital was concluded he said:

"You are bright; you intended to be very cute, but alas! if he is a foe,
as I believe he is, he invented those names. He knows you confessed to
an identity that is false, and therefore knows that there is something
wrong."

"What will you do?"

"He is to meet you to-night?"

"Yes."

"You are to guide him to the house of Argetti."

"Yes."

"I will be Argetti and you shall introduce him to me