predicament, I should bid him beware of the Italian doctor.”

“Your friend would be obliged for the warning,” I replied.

We walked a little further. “And I think,” he said, “that I should inform this purely hypothetical friend of mine that the Italian and his patron had their heads mighty close together, last night.”

“Last night?”

“Ay, last night. I went to drink with my lord, and so broke up their tete-a-tete. My lord was boisterous in his cups and not oversecret. He dropped some hints” — He broke off to indulge in one of his endless silent laughs. “I don’t know why I tell you this, Captain Percy. I am on the other side, you know,