lass from the salver when a very well dressed man of his own
age and build who had entered by the passage leading up from the
American bar drew his attention.

This man's face seemed quite familiar to him, so much so that he started
in his chair as though about to rise and greet him. The stranger, also,
seemed for a second under the same obsession, but only for a second; he
made a half pause and then passed on, becoming lost to sight beyond the
palm trees at the entrance. Jones leaned back in his chair.

"Now, _where_ did I see that guy before?" asked he of himself. "Where on
earth have I met him? and he recognised me--where in the--where in
the--where in the--?"

His memory vaguely and vainly searching for the name to go with that
face was at fault. He finished his whisky and soda and rose, and then
strolled off not heeding much in what direction, till he reached the
book and newspaper stand where he paused to inspect the wares, turning
over the pages of the latest best seller without imbibing a word of the
text.

Then he found himself downstairs in the American bar, with a champagne
cocktail before him.

Jones was an abstemious man, as a rule, but he had a highly strung
nervous system and it had been worked up. The unaccustomed whiskey and
soda had taken him in its charge, comforting him and conducting his
steps, and now the bar keeper, a cheery person, combined with the
champagne cocktail, the cheeriest of drinks, so raised his spirits and
warmed his optimism, that, having finished his glass he pushed it across
the counter and said, "Give me another."

At this moment a gentleman who had just entered the bar came up to the
counter, placed half a crown upon it and was served by the assistant bar
keeper with a glass of sherry.

Jones, turning, found himself face to face with the stranger whom he had
seen in the lounge, the stranger whose face he knew but whose name he
could not remember in the least.

Jones was a direct person, used to travel and the forming of chance
acquaintanceships. He did not hang back.

"'Scuse me," said he. "I saw you in the lounge and I'm sure I've met you
somewhere or another, but I can't place you."

CHAPTER II

THE STRANGER

The stranger, taking his change from the assistant bar tender, laughed.

"Yes," said he, "you have seen me before, often, I should think. Do you
mean to say you don't know where?"

"Nope," said Jones--he had acquired a few American idioms--"I'm c