," he replied. "I have to go to Pisa by the eight o'clock
train. But I shall be back to-morrow morning."

By that I established the fact that Oswald De Gex had an appointment
with Moroni at eleven o'clock that night, and not on the following
morning.

I ate my dinner at Bonciani's, near the station, a place little
patronized by foreigners, but where one obtains the best Tuscan
cooking--and after an hour or so over coffee at the Bottegone, I took
a taxi up to Fiesole. The night was cold but dry and moonlit. As we
ascended the steep hill a glorious panorama spread before us, for
below lay the valley of the Arno with the twinkling lights of the
ancient city, and the great pale moon upon the shimmering river
rendering it like a scene from fairyland. And as we went up beyond San
Domenico, through those lands which in spring and summer are so
fruitful with their vines and olives, two peasant swains passed,
chanting one of the old _stornelli_, those quaint love-songs of the
Tuscan _contadini_--the same which have been sung for centuries in and
about old Firenze:

Acqua di rio.
Teco saro di luglio e di gennaio
Dove tu muori te, moriro anch'io.

Tuscany is essentially a land of love, where the fierce flame of
affection burns in the hearts of all the people, and where a hot word
is quickly followed by a knife-thrust, and jealousy is ever cruel and
unrelenting.

Arriving at last in the little piazza, at Fiesole, where a number of
people were awaiting the last tram to take them back into Florence, I
alighted, paid the man, and continued my journey on foot, still
climbing the high road which led through the chestnut woods of
Ricorbico, until at last I found myself at the corner of the grounds
of the Villa Clementini, close to a pair of gates of mediaeval
wrought-iron which closed the south entrance to the magnificent
domain.

On either side of the road were high walls with tall cypresses behind
which cast their deep shadows over the highway, rendering it dark
around the entrance. I glanced at my luminous wristwatch--a relic of
my war service--and found that it still wanted ten minutes to eleven.

Therefore I drew back beneath the wall, and in the black shadow
awaited the millionaire's visitor to pass on to the main entrance.

I suppose I had been there ten minutes or so when I detected
approaching footsteps in the darkness, and presently the doctor's
familiar figure appeared in the patch of