I produced my trophy.
"Why, what the mischief have you got there?"

"My caller's card," said I. "He left it behind him. Feel the edge."

I have seldom seen a more indignant face than the one which my new
acquaintance bent over the weapon, as he held it to the light, and ran
his finger along the blade. He could have not frowned more heavily if he
had recognized the knife.

"The villains!" he muttered. "The damned villains!"

"Villains?" I queried. "Did you see more than one of them, then?"

"Didn't you?" he asked quickly. "Yes, yes, to be sure! There was at
least one other beggar skulking down below." He stood looking at me, the
knife in his hand, though mine was held out for it. "Don't you think,
Mr. Cole, that it's our duty to hand this over to the police? I--I've
heard of other cases about these Inns of Court. There's evidently a gang
of them, and this knife might convict the lot; there's no saying; anyway
I think the police should have it. If you like I'll take it to Scotland
Yard myself, and hand it over without mentioning your name."

"Oh, if you keep my name out of it," said I, "and say nothing about
it here in the hotel, you may do what you like, and welcome! It's the
proper course, no doubt; only I've had publicity enough, and would
sooner have felt that blade in my body than set my name going again in
the newspapers."

"I understand," he said, with his well-bred sympathy, which never went
a shade too far; and he dropped the weapon into a drawer, as the boots
entered with the tray. In a minute he had brewed two steaming jorums of
spirits-and-water; as he handed me one, I feared he was going to drink
my health, or toast my luck; but no, he was the one man I had met who
seemed, as he said, to "understand." Nevertheless, he had his toast.

"Here's confusion to the criminal classes in general," he cried; "but
death and damnation to the owners of that knife!"

And we clinked tumblers across the little oval table in the middle of
the room. It was more of a sitting-room than mine; a bright fire was
burning in the grate, and my companion insisted on my sitting over it
in the arm-chair, while for himself he fetched the one from his bedside,
and drew up the table so that our glasses should be handy. He then
produced a handsome cigar-case admirably stocked, and we smoked and
sipped in the cosiest fashion, though without exchanging many words.

You may imagine my pleasure in the society of a youth, equally charmin