re they had gained from piracy. No doubt the _Santa
Theresa_ was a gold ship they had waylaid and sunk.

At my entrance I had taken a little side table, but the restaurant was
filling rapidly. A man stopped beside my table and took off a frogged
overcoat with astrakhan trimmings. He hung this and his hat on a rack
and sat down in the chair opposite me.

Instinctively I had covered the map with a newspaper. With amazement I
now discovered that my _vis-a-vis_ was the villain of the Adventure of
the Young Lady and the Chart, as the author of the "New Arabian Nights"
would have phrased it.

The man was in a vile humor, so much could be seen at a glance. Without
doing me the honor of a single glance he stared moodily in front of him,
his heavy black brows knit to a grim frown.

He was a splendid specimen of physical manhood, big and well-muscled,
with a broad, flat back and soldierly carriage. That he was a leader of
men was an easy deduction, though the thin, straight mouth and the hard
glitter in the black eyes made the claim that he would never lead toward
altruism.

In quick, short puffs he smoked a cigarette, and as soon as he had
finished it he lit a second. Men all around us were waiting their turn,
but I observed that the first lift of his finger brought an attendant.

"Tenderloin with mushrooms--asparagus tips--strong black
coffee--cognac," he ordered with the curtness of an army officer
snapping commands at a trooper. His voice was rich and cultivated, but
had a very distinctly foreign quality in spite of the fact that his
English was faultless.

I took advantage of the distraction of the waiter's presence to slip the
map from the table into my pocket. After this I breathed freer, for it
is scarcely necessary to say that in the struggle for the map--and by
this time I had quite made up my mind that there would be fought out a
campaign for its possession--I was wholly on the side of the young
woman.

But as yet I knew none of the facts, and so was not in a position to
engage with him to advantage. I called for the check and took my coat
and hat from the rack.

Then I made my first mistake. I should have carried my raincoat to the
door before putting it on. As I buttoned it recognition began to
struggle faintly into his eyes. I waited for no further developments.

But as I went out of the door I could see him hurrying forward.
Instantly I turned to the right, dodged into a tobacco shop, ran swiftly
throu