sm of his face. It seemed almost as if all
friendly words were to him lifeless conveniences, and that his only life
was hate. After a pause the man spoke again.

"Of course, the Secretary of the branch told you everything that can be
told. But the one thing that can never be told is the last notion of the
President, for his notions grow like a tropical forest. So in case you
don't know, I'd better tell you that he is carrying out his notion
of concealing ourselves by not concealing ourselves to the most
extraordinary lengths just now. Originally, of course, we met in a
cell underground, just as your branch does. Then Sunday made us take a
private room at an ordinary restaurant. He said that if you didn't seem
to be hiding nobody hunted you out. Well, he is the only man on earth, I
know; but sometimes I really think that his huge brain is going a little
mad in its old age. For now we flaunt ourselves before the public.
We have our breakfast on a balcony--on a balcony, if you
please--overlooking Leicester Square."

"And what do the people say?" asked Syme.

"It's quite simple what they say," answered his guide.

"They say we are a lot of jolly gentlemen who pretend they are
anarchists."

"It seems to me a very clever idea," said Syme.

"Clever! God blast your impudence! Clever!" cried out the other in
a sudden, shrill voice which was as startling and discordant as his
crooked smile. "When you've seen Sunday for a split second you'll leave
off calling him clever."

With this they emerged out of a narrow street, and saw the early
sunlight filling Leicester Square. It will never be known, I suppose,
why this square itself should look so alien and in some ways so
continental. It will never be known whether it was the foreign look that
attracted the foreigners or the foreigners who gave it the foreign look.
But on this particular morning the effect seemed singularly bright and
clear. Between the open square and the sunlit leaves and the statue and
the Saracenic outlines of the Alhambra, it looked the replica of some
French or even Spanish public place. And this effect increased in
Syme the sensation, which in many shapes he had had through the whole
adventure, the eerie sensation of having strayed into a new world. As a
fact, he had bought bad cigars round Leicester Square ever since he was
a boy. But as he turned that corner, and saw the trees and the Moorish
cupolas, he could have sworn that he was turning into an un