The Firefly of France

, a thief taken red-handed, but quite another, and a much more harrowing one, to have him slip through your fingers, precipitate himself i

indow, which, owing to the crowded condition of the hotel, opened on a side street, a fire-escape descended jaggedly; and upon it, just

me. I should have climbed the Matterhorn with all cheerfulness to catch him at the top. But sundry visions of the figure I would cut, the crowd that

ven looked up at me and indulged in a grimace-but his triumph was ill-timed, for at that very instant I beheld, strolling along the stree

ords, reached him; he glanced up, saw the figure on the ladde

dder's foot. But our doughty Teuton was a resourceful person. Roused to the urgency of his plight, he looked wildly up at me, down at

man's retreat below. If the system of numbering was the same on every floor, my thief must, of course, emerge from Room 303. But this similarity was pr

on for the house detective. And where was he, by the w

ver various malignant hassocks, tables, and chairs. Finding the switch at last, I

eemed undisturbed when I examined it, and my various bags and suitcases were securely locked. I

with a black bag, obviously the house-physician; and the policeman that I had summoned from his stroll below. The latter, in an excited brogue, was recounting his late vision of the thief, "ha

he initiative, bustling past me int

irst case, I assure you, of anything so regrettable. If it gets into the papers it won't do us any good. Now the important thin

so, to tell the truth, was I. The whole maddening affair seemed bent on turning to farce at ev

him to sit here waiting all this time? What on earth have you been doing-reading the p

zed, "that you could hold him." A tactless

window head foremost, down the ladder, and into the room below. Let's be after him-though we stand as much chance of catching him as

arm. I looked down at it with rai

houses where burglars fly in and out of windows; it makes them nervous; you wouldn't believe how easily a hotel can get a bad name and lose its

hing still livelier. Are you coming down with me to investigate the room be

g eyelid. "If the gintleman says so-" he remarked in heavy tones fraught with meaning, and fixed a

d. "Sure, we was going right down there anyhow

reason. We found the corridor empty, the floor desk abandoned-a state of things rather strikingly the duplicate of that reigni

ich you ask." If I would persist in

oom, and the door was opened. There stood a girl,-a most attractive girl, the girl that I had seen downstairs. Straight and slender, spiritedly gracious in bearing, with g

e policeman, brightly, "thi

ve murdered him, for how else could she read h

f who took French leave by my fire-escape. I must have been mistaken-I thought that he

mpersonal, were yet delightful; I could have stood there talking burglars with her till dawn. "Do you wish to come

fore you came-there was ample time. It is not of the least consequence, anyhow.

sfied at last." This was the St. Ives

rted sharply, "but before I share them wit

d with dignity. "I confess

interrupted. "Doctor,

s, hesitated, and then revealed his pat

ar sir, wha

lles; the stars are fighting for the Teuton race. Now, let's hear how you were christened," I

unpolished worthy. "My name's Zeitfeld; but I was bo

in the hyphenate lies the chief menace to the United States. And what's

nded, grinning; "it

eason," I assured him as I leaned against

The atmosphere here is too hectic; you answer calls for help too slowly-calls, at least, in which a guest indiscreetly te

odramatic, the absurd. To connect the head waiter's panic at my departure with the episode in my room, to declare that the floor clerks had been cal

ro of France, the cleverest secret-service agent in the pay of the fatherland, and I sometimes ruefully suspected, the biggest imbecile of the United States in the person of myself-I knew better than to call

ruined, and Dunny, probably at this instant cracking walnuts as fiercely as if each one were the kaiser's head. "But I

he looked

as how th' thafe is German, ye'll not set eyes on him more-for divil a wa

onfusion to them all. And, O'Reilly, I am glad I'm going to sail to-morrow.

way. That ocean voyage of mine was to take rank, in part at least, as a first-class nightmare. The Central powers could s