are wrong. After his hard work on this Pettingill case he
would be sure to take a sleeper. Now if you recall the fact, I did not
decide to go to New York to-night till the last minute. Then we found
that we could not get a whole section, and were about to bunk together
in a lower berth when, several more people applying, they determined to
put on another coach. Therefore, unless Mr. Barnes secured his ticket
during the day, he would inevitably have been assigned to this coach."

"Had you any special reason for suggesting Number Ten?"

"Yes. I know that Number Six is unoccupied. But just as we started some
one came in, and I think took the upper berth of Number Ten."

"Mr. Barnes began to think that he would have exceedingly difficult work
to detect this man in crime, were he really to commit one, in spite of
the fact that he knew so much in advance. The conversation continued:

"Thus, you see, there are two ways by which my object may become known,
a serious matter if unguarded against. As, however, I recognize the
possibilities in advance, there will be no difficulty whatever, and the
knowledge will be of no value to any detective, even though he be your
Mr. Barnes."

"How will you avoid that danger?"

"My dear boy, do you suppose for an instant that I would reply to that,
after pointing out that a detective may be listening? However, I will
give you an idea. I will show you what I meant when I said that
Pettingill had blundered. You said that he had lost only a button, and
thought it clever in Barnes to trace him from the button. But a button
may be a most important thing. If I should lose one of the buttons of my
vest, whilst committing a crime, Mr. Barnes would trace me out in much
less than ten days, and for this reason, they are the only ones of the
kind in the world."

"How does that happen? I supposed that buttons were made by the
thousand?"

"Not all buttons. For reasons which I need not tell the possibly
listening detective, a friend travelling abroad had a set made
especially, and brought them back to me as a present. They are six
handsomely cut cameos, half the set having the profile head of Juliet,
and the others a similar face of Romeo."

"A romance?"

"That is immaterial. Suppose that I should plan a robbery in order to
decide this wager. As necessity would not urge me either as to time or
place, I should choose my opportunity, let us say when but one person
guarded the treasure. That one I sh