efore me?"

"Jackanapes?" said Garnache thoughtfully, and looked the man in the face
again. Behind the stranger pressed his three companions now, whilst the
troopers across the room forgot their card-play to watch the altercation
that seemed to impend.

The foreigner--for such, indeed, his French proclaimed him--turned
half-contemptuously to the host, ignoring Garnache with an air that was
studiously offensive.

"Jackanapes?" murmured Garnache again, and he, too, turned to the host.
"Tell me, Monsieur l'Hote," said he, "where do the jackanapes bury their
dead in Grenoble? I may need the information."

Before the distressed landlord could utter a word, the stranger had
wheeled about again to face Garnache. "What shall that mean?" he asked
sharply, a great fierceness in his glance.

"That Grenoble may be witnessing the funeral of a foreign bully by
to-morrow, Monsieur l'Etranger," said Garnache, showing his teeth in a
pleasant smile. He became conscious in that moment of a pressure on his
shoulder blade, but paid no heed to it, intent on watching the other's
countenance. It expressed surprise a moment, then grew dark with anger.

"Do you mean that for me, sir?" he growled.

Garnache spread his hands. "If monsieur feels that the cap fits him, I
shall not stay him in the act of donning it."

The stranger set one hand upon the table, and leaned forward towards
Garnache. "May I ask monsieur to be a little more definite?" he begged.

Garnache sat back in his chair and surveyed the man, smiling. Quick
though his temper usually might be, it was checked at present by
amusement. He had seen in his time many quarrels spring from the
flimsiest of motives, but surely never had he seen one quite so
self-begotten. It was almost as if the fellow had come there of set
purpose to pick it with him.

A suspicion flashed across his mind. He remembered the warning
mademoiselle had given him. And he wondered. Was this a trick to lure
him to some guet-apens? He surveyed his man more closely; but the
inspection lent no colour to his suspicions. The stranger looked so
frank and honest; then again his accent was foreign. It might very well
be that he was some Savoyard lordling unused to being kept waiting,
and that his hunger made him irritable and impatient. If that were so,
assuredly the fellow deserved a lesson that should show him he was now
in France, where different manners obtained to those that he displayed;
yet, lest he should