.

There are rare occasions in life when one acts instinctively in the
right way before one's mind has had time to reason matters out. It was
so with me now. Without stopping to think, I whipped out a pencil from
my pocket, and snatched away a piece of white paper from underneath
the small dish of candied fruit in front of me. Spreading it out on
the table I hastily scribbled the following words:

"Don't drink your wine. The man with you has just put something into
it."

I folded this up, and beckoned to one of the waiters who was standing
by the door. He came forward at once.

"Do you want to earn half a sovereign?" I asked.

"Yes, sir," he answered, without the faintest air of surprise.

"Listen to me, then," I said, "and whatever you do don't look round.
In the farther corner behind us there's a gentleman with an eyeglass
dining with another man. Go up the centre of the room and give him
this note. If he asks you who it's from, say some one handed it you in
the hall and told you to deliver it. Then go and get my bill and bring
it me here."

The waiter bowed, and taking the note departed on his errand, as
casually as though I had instructed him to fetch me a liqueur. All the
time I had been speaking I had kept a watchful eye on the mirror,
and as far as I could tell neither of the two men had noticed our
conversation. They were talking and laughing, the man I had sent the
message to lightly fingering the stem of his wine-glass, and blowing
thin spirals of cigarette smoke into the air. Even as I looked he
raised the glass, and for one harrowing second I thought I was too
late. Then, like a messenger from the gods, the waiter suddenly
appeared from behind one of the pillars and handed him my note on a
small silver tray.

He took it casually with his left hand; at the same time setting down
his wine-glass on the table. I saw him make an excuse to his host, and
then open it and read it. I don't know exactly what I had expected
him to do next, but the result was certainly surprising. Instead of
showing any amazement or even questioning the waiter, he made some
laughing remark to his companion, and putting his hand in his pocket
pulled out a small leather case from which he extracted a card.

Bending over the table he wrote two or three words in pencil, and
handed it to the waiter. As he did so the edge of his sleeve just
caught the wine-glass. I saw the other man start up and stretch out
his hand, but he was to