The Firefly of France

No other word fits the case. The inns of the Middle Ages, which, I believe, reeked with trap-doors and cutthroats, pistols and poisoned daggers, offered nothing weirder than m

airily in Central Park, and if I had a friend seeking New

ed me there in bachelor state and comfort, I had accompanied my friend Dick Forrest on a farewell yacht cruise from which I returned to find the first two hotels of my seeking packed from c

in my possession four shell fragments, carefully extracted by a French surgeon from my fortunately hard head. Nor should I have lived through the dreadful moment when that British officer

ooming in the distance and the nearer sound of water running through tall reeds and over green stones and between great mossy trees. Indeed, my life would now be, comparatively speaking, a cheerless d

titute for the same. Across the table sat my one-time guardian, dear old Peter Dunstan,-Dunny to me since the night when I first came to him, a very tearful, lonesome, small boy whose lonel

ven knows it was to prove so, even wilder than his dreams could paint; bu

dinner. It was a good dinner; we had consulted over each item from

very word of it, I tell you, Dev." Dev, like Dunny, is a misnomer; my name is Devereux-Devereux Bayne. "Don't you risk your bones enough with the confounded games you play? What's the use

nny. You brought me up the other way. The modern system, you know, makes the parent or guardian respon

out impertinence, he v

se pirate fellows. You read the papers-the headlines anyway; you know it as well as I. It's suicide, no less! T

height and straightness, his bright blue eyes and proud silver head, is a sight for sore eyes, as they say. But just then I had g

ver, more than welcome, including as it did a smooth white neck, a small shell-like ear, and a mass of warm, crinkly, red-brown hair. She wore a rose-col

pirates had quite a neutral sound. You know I have to go via Rome to spend a week with Jack

s; and I, crumbling bread, lazily wishing I could get a front v

had hurried home before the event I might have been President and declared war here instead of hunting one across the seas. In t

wled b

matter-of-fact, correct; you want to sit in your ambulance and smoke cigarettes indifferently and raise your eyebrows superciliously when shrapnel bur

membered each anniversary since I was five, beginning with a hobby-horse and

cusing finger and ta

es and pretty well off, too. So when you look bored, it's picturesque; but wait! Wait ten years, till you take on flesh, and the doctor puts you on diet, and you sto

even at best, hints of overweight, general uninterestingness, and a disposition to sit at home in smoking-jacket and slippers aft

. By the way, speaking of Huns-it was you, the neutral, who mentioned them,-does it strike you there are quite a few of them on the staff of this hotel? I hope they won't po

ding in and out among tables and paging some elusi

droning. "Room fou

summons, and he pau

for you, sir,"

. But at the door I found my path barred by the maitre d'hotel, who, at

eferential as his bearing was, I saw no cause for the inquiry, and with some amusemen

e of the telephone booths. Glancing back, I could see him still standing there gazing a

rrest, my former college chum. Upon leaving his yacht that morning, I had promised him a certain power of attorney-Dick is a lawyer

my room now. Where are you? That's all right. You'll have it by messenger

stood, as if watching for my return. I sprang into an elevator just about to start its

nviction as I shot up four stories in as

s passed. The place seemed deserted; no doubt all the guests were downstairs. Treading lightly on the thick ca

r open, and halted in my tracks. With his back to me, bent

utinizing my unconscious visitor from head to foot. He wo

ere suit you?" I inquired affabl

e, rabbit-like, decent-appearing little soul. He was neatly dressed; he seemed unarmed save for a great ring of assorted keys; and his manner was as propitiatory a

urmured in a sort

ing remark was

an?" I inquired, not s

change in him-he drew himself

enace. It was the voice of a fanatic intoning "Die Wacht am R

n was becomi

rld Schiller, Goethe, the famous Kultur, and a new conception of the possibilities of war. But I think they should have kept

sitor, sulkily. His resentment had already le

fellow-creatures with great enthusiasm and, moreover, I could easily have made two of this mousy champion of a warlike race.

I'll give you just one chance. If you care to tell me how you got through a locked door and

nformed me that he was a first-class locksmith-first-glass he called it-who had been sent by th

ncluded, as postscrip

ol?" I asked, excusably nettled, and stepping to

dred and three. I've found a man investigating my trunk-a foreigner, a German." An exclamation from the manager, and from the listening t

rd the electric switch. His fingers found and turned it, plunging the room into the darkness of the grave. Taken unaware, I barred his path to the hall, only to hear him fling up the w