tion better before I
give the information to anyone else."

"But you recognized Senhor Poritol's handwriting on the bill," exclaimed
the minister.

"On the face of it, yes. He did not write the abbreviations on the back."

"Abbreviations!" exclaimed Poritol.

"Please let the matter rest till morning," said Orme stubbornly. "I have
told you just what I would do."

Poritol opened his mouth, to speak, but Alcatrante silenced him with a
frown. "Your word is sufficient, Mr. Orme," he said. "We will call
to-morrow morning. Is ten o'clock too early?"

"Not at all," said Orme. "Doubtless I shall be able to satisfy you. I
merely wish to think it over."

With a formal bow, Alcatrante turned to the door and departed, Poritol
following.

Orme strolled back to his window and stood idly watching the lights of
the vessels on the lake. But his mind was not on the unfolded view before
him. He was puzzling over this mystery in which he had so suddenly become
a factor. Unquestionably, the five-dollar bill held the key to some
serious problem.

Surely Alcatrante had not come merely as the friend of Poritol, for the
difference in the station of the two South Americans was marked. Poritol
was a cheap character--useful, no doubt, in certain kinds of work, but
vulgar and unconvincing. He might well be one of those promoters who hang
on at the edge of great projects, hoping to pick up a commission here and
there. His strongest point was his obvious effort to triumph over his own
insignificance, for this effort, by its comic but desperate earnestness,
could not but command a certain degree of respect.

Alcatrante, on the other hand, was a name to make statesmen knit their
brows. A smooth trouble-maker, he had set Europe by the ears in the
matter of unsettled South American loans, dexterously appealing to the
much-overworked Monroe Doctrine every time his country was threatened by
a French or German or British blockade. But his mind was of no small
caliber. He could hold his own not only at his own game of international
chess, but in the cultured discussion of polite topics. Orme knew of him
as a clever after-dinner speaker, a man who could, when he so desired,
please greatly by his personal charm.

No, Alcatrante was no friend of Poritol's; nor was it likely that, as
protector of the interests of his countrymen, he would go so far as to
accompany them on their errands unless much was at stake. Perhaps Poritol
was Alcatrante's tool