ded he passed
me, and in order to pose as an excited onlooker, I shouted to him my
surprise in seeing such an apparatus in the air.

He evidently knew more of the new invention than I did. And yet Ray held
aloof from me.

Next day, having been out for a stroll, I returned to the hotel about
noon, when a few moments later my friend entered the reading-room.

"Let's go to your room," he suggested; therefore we ascended the stairs,
and I opened the door with my key.

As soon as I had done so, he made a swift tour of the apartment,
examining both the carpet and the red plush-covered chairs without
uttering a word.

Then he stood in the centre of the room for a moment, and slowly
selected a cigarette from his case. Ray Raymond was thinking--thinking
deeply.

"Your friend Goldstein has a visitor," he remarked at last.

"Not to my knowledge," I said.

"He occupies room No. 11 in this hotel," he went on. "This is 16,
therefore he must be quite near you."

"But who's the visitor?"

"A friend of Goldstein's. Downstairs you can discover his name."

I descended and found that on the previous evening there had certainly
arrived at the hotel a Mr. William Smith, who occupied room No. 11.

But how was Ray aware of it?

I returned to my room, and found him staring out of the window into the
roadway below. I saw that he was unusually agitated.

"My dear Jack," he said, turning to me when I told him the name of the
occupant of No. 11, "how horribly stuffy this room is! Do you never have
the window open?"

"Of course," I said, crossing to open it as usual. But I found that it
had been jammed down tightly, and that felt had been placed in the
crevices by the hotel people to exclude the draught.

Ray noticed it, and a curious smile crossed his aquiline countenance.

"I'd remove all that, if I were you," he exclaimed. "And I'd also pull
out all that stuffing I see up the chimney. You never have a fire here,
I suppose."

"I hate a fire in my bedroom," I answered. "But what has that to do with
our friend Goldstein?"

"A good deal," was his reply. "Take my advice and have a fire here;" and
by his look I saw that he had discovered more than he wished at that
juncture to tell me. Had I known the astounding truth, I certainly
should not have taken his words so calmly.

He appeared to evince an interest in my room, its position and its
contents, but when I remarked upon it he pretended unconcern. He rang
the bell and inqu