The Englishman nodded.

"You've rung the bell at the first shot, Sedgwick."

"Oh, I don't think it," Miss Berry protested. "Captain Bothwell is too
much of a gentleman to destroy a lady's things wantonly. Just look at
this hat!"

Evelyn laughed at her wail. It happened not to be her hat.

"It's dear Boris, all right. I wonder if he left his card?"

"Shall we call in the police?" her aunt asked.

Miss Wallace questioned me with her eyes.

"Might as well," I assented. "Not that it will make a bit of difference,
but it will satisfy the hotel people. Probably it would be as well not
to mention our suspicions."

So we had the police in. They talked and took notes and asked questions,
and at last went away with the omniscient air peculiar to officers of
the law the world over. They had decided it was the work of Nifty Jim, a
notorious diamond thief at that time honoring San Francisco with his
presence.

Over a cigar in my rooms Blythe and I talked the matter out. Bothwell
had made the first move. Soon he would make another, for of course he
would search my place at the Graymount. The question was whether to keep
the rooms guarded or to let him have a clear field. We decided on the
latter.

"How far will the man go? That's the question." My friend looked at his
cigar tip speculatively. "Will he have you knocked on the head to see if
you are carrying it?"

"He will if he can," I told him promptly. "But I'm taking no chances. I
carry a revolver."

"Did you happen to notice that we were followed to-night?"

"That's nothing new. They've been dogging me ever since I got the map.
But I play a pretty careful game."

"I would," Blythe agreed gravely. "I say. Let me stay with you here till
we get off. Better be sure than sorry."

"Glad to have you, though I don't think it's necessary."

It may have been five minutes later that I suddenly sat bolt upright in
my chair. An idea had popped into my head, one so bold that it might
have been borrowed from Bothwell's lawless brain.

"I say. Let's play this out with Captain Boris his own way. Let's just
remind him we're on earth too."

"Meaning----"

My eyes danced.

"I'm as good a burglar as he is, and so are you."

Blythe waited.

"He doesn't give a tinker's dam for the law," I continued. "Good enough!
We'll take a leaf out of his book. To-morrow night you have an
engagement--to ransack the captain's rooms."

"What for?"

"To get that corner of a map he st