t all, Mr Levi; but I really don't know. I only sort of felt that
he was a suspicious character. I dismissed him on instinct, as it were.
See?'

Without answering this question Mr Levi asked another. 'If this Jules is
such a well-known person,' he said, 'how could the feller hope to come
to my ball without being recognized?'

'Give it up,' said Racksole promptly.

'Well, I'll be moving on,' was Mr Sampson Levi's next remark. 'Good day,
and thank ye. I suppose you aren't doing anything in Kaffirs?'

Mr Racksole smiled a negative.

'I thought not,' said Levi. Well, I never touch American rails myself,
and so I reckon we sha'n't come across each other. Good day.'

'Good day,' said Racksole politely, following Mr Sampson Levi to the
door.

With his hand on the handle of the door, Mr Levi stopped, and, gazing at
Theodore Racksole with a shrewd, quizzical expression, remarked:

'Strange things been going on here lately, eh?'

The two men looked very hard at each other for several seconds.

'Yes,' Racksole assented. 'Know anything about them?'

'Well--no, not exactly,' said Mr Levi. 'But I had a fancy you and I
might be useful to each other; I had a kind of fancy to that effect.'

'Come back and sit down again, Mr Levi,' Racksole said, attracted by the
evident straightforwardness of the man's tone. 'Now, how can we be of
service to each other? I flatter myself I'm something of a judge of
character, especially financial character, and I tell you--if you'll put
your cards on the table, I'll do ditto with mine.'

'Agreed,' said Mr Sampson Levi. 'I'll begin by explaining my interest
in your hotel. I have been expecting to receive a summons from a certain
Prince Eugen of Posen to attend him here, and that summons hasn't
arrived. It appears that Prince Eugen hasn't come to London at all. Now,
I could have taken my dying davy that he would have been here yesterday
at the latest.'

'Why were you so sure?'

'Question for question,' said Levi. 'Let's clear the ground first, Mr
Racksole. Why did you buy this hotel? That's a conundrum that's been
puzzling a lot of our fellows in the City for some days past. Why did
you buy the Grand Babylon? And what is the next move to be?'

'There is no next move,' answered Racksole candidly, 'and I will tell
you why I bought the hotel; there need be no secret about it. I bought
it because of a whim.' And then Theodore Racksole gave this little Jew,
whom he had begun to respect, a fai