years ago--it doesn't matter
who they were--and left Russia to become an adventurer at large. In the
years that followed I was everything everywhere--seaman, barber, waiter,
soldier, and gambling-house cheat. I wasn't particular how I picked up a
living nor where it led me. All that won't interest you. I was operator
in a gambling-joint at San Francisco when I first met Goldenburg, though
I knew him by reputation. He came to our place now and again, and we
were on speaking terms. After that Grell came and I mistook him for the
other man. That was how we first became acquainted."

"That would be almost five years ago?" interposed Foyle quietly.

"Just about that. They never came together, by the way, and Grell always
called himself Mr. Johnson. His own name would have been too well known.
Well, one night, or rather one morning, he had been winning pretty
heavily. He must have had close upon four or five thousand dollars in
notes on him. At the time I didn't attach any significance to the fact
that two or three of the worst toughs at the table went out shortly
after him. I followed about five minutes later to get a breath of air,
and came on the gang in a narrow, deserted street, just as they brought
Grell down with a sandbag. It was no business of mine and ordinarily I
should have walked away, but that I'd had a little difference with one
of the gang earlier in the day, so I sailed in with a gun, broke 'em up,
and helped Grell to his hotel. He came round before I left him, and I
told him my name, and he gave me five hundred dollars, telling me to
look to him if ever I was in trouble.

"Well, next day I was fired from my job. I could guess that the people
whose game I'd spoilt were at the bottom of it, but that didn't worry me
much. I had a bit of money and I came back to Europe--London, Paris,
Vienna, Rome--everywhere but Russia. I lived sometimes by my wits,
sometimes by any odd job I could turn my hand to. My father and mother
had both died, and my only living relative was my sister, a girl of
eighteen, living in St. Petersburg. From her I heard occasionally."

A spasm crossed his face as though some painful recollection had been
brought to his mind, and he passed a handkerchief across his brow, which
had suddenly become wet with perspiration.

"It was through her that I again met Grell," he resumed, speaking more
slowly. "She was alone and practically unprotected. She wrote to me that
a certain high official had