I

I give the in full. It was from the s.y. Mermaid, in Monaco Harbour.

MY DEAR PETER, Where is Ogden? We have been him every day. Mrs Ford is herself to death. She me if I have any news, and it is very to have to keep telling her that I have not from you. Surely, with the opportunities you must every day, you can manage to him. Do be quick. We are on you.—In haste, CYNTHIA.

I read this and business-like times the day; and after dinner that night, in order to upon it in solitude, I left the house and off in the direction of the village.

I was house and village when I aware that I was being followed. The night was dark, and the wind moving in the tree-tops the of the country road. Both time and place were such as it to on the road me.

Uncertainty in such cases is the thing. I sharply, and to walk on in the direction from which I had come.

I had not been mistaken. A moment later a dark up out of the darkness, and the which me, as I my presence known, that I had taken him by surprise.

There was a pause. I the man, he might be, to run, but he his ground. Indeed, he forward.

'Get back!' I said, and allowed my to on the road it in for any development. It was as well that he should know it was there.

The hint to than him.

'Aw, cut out the stuff, bo,' he said in a cautious, undertone. 'I ain't goin' to start anything.'

I had an that I had the voice before, but I not place it.

'What are you me for?' I demanded. 'Who are you?'

'Say, I want a talk youse. I took a at under de lamp-post dere, an' I it was you, so I along. Say, I'm wise to your game, sport.'

I had him by this time. Unless there were two men in the of Sanstead who from the Bowery, this must be the man I had at the 'Feathers' who had the of Miss Benjafield.

'I haven't the idea what you mean,' I said. 'What is my game?'

His voice again.

'Ah chee!' he protested. 'Quit kiddin'! What was rubberin' around de house for last night if you wasn't trailin' de kid?'

'Was it you who ran into me last night?' I asked.

'Gee! I it was a tree. I came near takin' de count.'

'I did take it. You in a great hurry.'

'Hell!' said the man simply, and expectorated.

'Say,' he resumed, having delivered this on that episode, dat's a great kid, Nugget. I it was a Black Hand when he cut loose. But, say, let's don't waste time. We together about kid.'

'Certainly, if you wish it. What do you to mean?'

'Aw, kiddin'!' He again. He to be a man who the whole of by this means. 'I know you!'

'Then you have the of me, though I I you before. Weren't you at the "Feathers" one Wednesday evening, something about a dog?'

'Sure. Dat was me.'

'What do you by saying that you know me?'

'Aw, kiddin', Sam!'

There was, it to me, a note in his voice.

'Tell me, who do you think I am?' I asked patiently.

'Ahr ghee! You can't me, sport. Smooth Sam Fisher, is who you are, bo. I know you.'

I was too to speak. Verily, some have upon them.

'I hain't youse, Sam,' he continued, 'but I know it's you. And I'll tell how I it out. To with, there ain't but you and your and me and my de Little Nugget's on at all. Dey him out of New York slick. And I that you had come here after him. So when I into a guy dat's trailin' de kid here, well, who's it going to be if it ain't youse? And when guy talks like a dude, like they all say you do, well, who's it going to be if it ain't youse? So kiddin', Sam, and let's to business.'

'Have I the of Mr Buck MacGinnis?' I said. I that this be no other than that celebrity.

'Dat's right. Dere's no need to keep up anyt'ing me, Sam.

We're on de same trail, so let's to it.'

'One moment,' I said. 'Would it you to that my name is Burns, and that I am a master at the school?'

He admirably.

'Hell, no!' he said. 'Gee, it's just what you would be, Sam. I always had been one of rah-rah boys oncest. Say, it's of to be a perfessor. You're right in on de ground floor.'

His voice appealing.

'Say, Sam, don't be a hawg. Let's go fifty-fifty in deal. My and me has come a of a number of miles on proposition, and ain't no need for us to scrappin' over it. Dere's for all of us. Old man Ford'll up for every one, and won't be any fuss. Let's in on nuggett'ing. It ain't like as if it was an two-by-four deal. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't big de whole of us.'

As I said nothing, he proceeded.

'It ain't square, Sam, to take of your having education. If it was a square fight, and us de same chance, I wouldn't say; but you bein' a and gettin' right into de place like ain't right. Say, don't be a hawg, Sam. Don't it all. Fifty-fifty! Does go?'

'I don't know,' I said. 'You had ask the Sam. Good night.'

I walked past him and for the gates at my best pace.

He after me, pleading.

'Sam, give us a quarter, then.'

I walked on.

'Sam, don't be a hawg!'

He into a run.

'Sam!' His voice its and menacingly.

'Gee, if I had me canister, wouldn't be so flip! Listen here, you big cheese! You t'ink is de only t'ing in sight, huh? Well, we ain't done yet. You'll see yet. We'll you! Youse had best watch out.'

I stopped and on him. 'Look here, you fool,' I cried. 'I tell you I am not Sam Fisher. Can't you that you have got of the man? My name is Burns—Burns.'

He expectorated—scornfully this time. He was a man slow by nature to ideas, but slower to himself of one that had to its way into what he called his brain. He had on the that I was Smooth Sam Fisher, and no on my part were going to shake his belief. He looked on them as so many by greed.

'Tell it to Sweeney!' was the in which he his scepticism.

'May be you'll say ain't trailin' de Nugget, huh?'

It was a home-thrust. If truth-telling has a habit, one slowly off the mark when the moment for the lie. Quite against my will, I hesitated. Observant Mr MacGinnis my and triumphantly.

'Ah ghee!' he remarked. And then with a return to ferocity,

'All right, you Sam, you wait! We'll you, and you good!

See? Dat goes. You t'ink put it across us, huh? All

right, you'll yours. You wait!'

And with these he off into the night. From in the middle came a 'Hawg!' and he was gone, me with a settled that, while I had had occasion, since my to Sanstead began, to as complex, their had now its height. With a Pinkerton's man within, and a of without, Sanstead House likely to an place for a with no previous experience.

The need for action had imperative.

II

White, the butler, looking a detective—which, I suppose, is how a wants to look—was taking the air on the football when I left the house next for a before-breakfast stroll. The of him me with a for first-hand on the of the man Mr MacGinnis me to be and also of Mr MacGinnis himself. I wanted to be that my friend Buck, despite appearances, was a person was than his bite.

White's manner, at our exchanges, was that of the butler. From what I came to know of him later, I think he took an in himself into role he had to assume.

At the mention of Smooth Sam Fisher, however, his manner off him like a skin, and he to talk as himself, a and self different from the person he it necessary to be when on duty.

'White,' I said, 'do you know anything of Smooth Sam Fisher?'

He at me. I the question, up to by no previous remark, was unusual.

'I met a of the name of Buck MacGinnis—he was our visitor that night, by the way—and he was full of Sam. Do you know him?'

'Buck?'

'Either of them.'

'Well, I've Buck, but I know all about him. There's pepper to Buck.'

'So I should imagine. And Sam?'

'You may take it from me that there's more pepper to Sam's little than there is to Buck's whole body. Sam make Buck look like the last of shad, if it came to a showdown. Buck's just a common roughneck. Sam's an man. He's got brains.'

'So I gathered. Well, I'm to you speak so well of him, that's who I'm to be.'

'How's that?'

'Buck MacGinnis that I am Smooth Sam Fisher. Nothing I can say will shift him.'

White stared. He had very eyes. Then he to laugh.

'Well, what do you know about that?' he exclaimed. 'Wouldn't that you!'

'It would. I may say it did. He called me a for wanting to keep the Little Nugget to myself, and left to "fix me". What would you say the "to fix" in Mr MacGinnis's vocabulary?'

White was still to himself.

'He's a wonder!' he observed. 'Can you it? Taking you for

Smooth Sam!'

'He said he had Smooth Sam. Have you?'

'Lord, yes.'

'Does he look like me?'

'Not a bit.'

'Do you think he's over here in England?'

'Sam? I know he is.'

'Then Buck MacGinnis was right?'

'Dead right, as as Sam being on the goes. Sam's after the Nugget to him this time. He's often before, but we've been too for him. This time he he's going to it off.'

'Then why haven't we anything of him? Buck MacGinnis to be the in these parts.'

'Oh, Sam'll up when he good and ready. You can take it from me that Sam what he is doing. Sam's a special of mine. I don't give a for Buck MacGinnis.'

'I wish I had your disposition! To me Buck MacGinnis a citizen. I wonder what he meant by "fix"?'

White, however, to the of Buck's more rival.

'Sam's a college man, you know. That him a pull. He has brains, and can use them.'

'That was one of the points on which Buck MacGinnis me.

He said it was not to use my education.'

He laughed.

'Buck's got no sense. That's why you him on like a porch-climber. It's his only of how to when he wants to do a job. And that's why there's only one man to keep your on in this thing of the Little Nugget, and that's Sam. I wish you to know Sam. You'd like him.'

'You to look on him as a personal friend. I don't like Buck.'

'Oh, Buck!' said White scornfully.

We the house as the of the came to us across the field.

'Then you think we may count on Sam's arrival, sooner or later, as a certainty?' I said.

'Surest thing you know.'

'You will have a time.'

'All in the day's work.'

'I I ought to look at it in that way. But I do wish I what Buck meant by "fix".'

White at last to give his mind to the point.

'I he'll try to put one over on you with a sand-bag,' he said carelessly. He to the with calm.

'A sand-bag, eh?' I said. 'It exciting.'

'And it. I know. I've had some.'

I from him at the door. As a he had failed to qualify. He had not my mind to the extent.