o
face. With Keenan, I had no chance of getting away. So I simply faced
it out. Then Pobloff shadowed us to the Riggi, watched us all through
luncheon, and followed us down to the city again. And here's the strange
part of it all. Keenan saw that we were being shadowed, from the first,
and I could see him fretting and chafing under it, for he imagines that
it's all because of what he's carrying with him. So, on the other hand,
Pobloff has concluded Keenan and I are fellow-conspirators, for he let me
go to the lift alone, just to keep his eye on Keenan, who told me he had
business at the steamship agency."

"But why should we be afraid of Pobloff, then?"

"It's a choice of two evils, I should venture to say. But that's not
all. As soon as I was free from each of them, and had left them there,
carrying out that silent and ridiculous advance and retreat between them,
I had to think both hard and fast. I decided that the best thing for me
to do would be to slip down to Rome, at once, and make my visit to the
Embassy."

"Yes, I found your note, telling me that."

"When I saw that I was being followed at the station I bought a ticket
for Busalla, as a blind, and went in one door of my compartment and then
out the other. My _wagon lit_ was standing on the next track. I didn't
change from the one train to the other until the train for Rome started
to move. Then I slipped out, and jumped for the moving platform, and was
bundled into my right carriage by a guard, who thought I was trying to
commit an Anna Karenina suicide--until I gave him ten francs. Whether I
got away unnoticed or not I can't say for sure. But Pobloff will have
resources here that we know nothing of. From now on, you may be sure, he
will have Keenan watched by one of his agents, night and day!"

"Then, good heavens, we've got to step in and save Keenan from Pobloff!"

"It amounts to that," admitted Frank. "Yet, in some way, if we could
only manage it, the two of them ought to fight our battle out for us,
between themselves!"

"That's true--but _did_ you get to Rome?"

"Yes, without trouble."

"And you got the money?"

"Only half of it. They hedged, and said the other half could not be paid
until Pobloff's arrest. Jim, we must be on our guard against that man."

"Pobloff doesn't count!" ejaculated Durkin impatiently. "It's Keenan we
have to have our fight with--_he's_ the man, the offender, we
want!--_that_ means only two hundred