minute later. I suppose you can sleep?"

I laughed.

"Charming age, yours," said Mills, as we came out on the quays.
Already dim figures of the workers moved in the biting dawn and the
masted forms of ships were coming out dimly, as far as the eye
could reach down the old harbour.

"Well," Mills began again, "you may oversleep yourself."

This suggestion was made in a cheerful tone, just as we shook hands
at the lower end of the Cannebiere. He looked very burly as he
walked away from me. I went on towards my lodgings. My head was
very full of confused images, but I was really too tired to think.




PART TWO




CHAPTER I



Sometimes I wonder yet whether Mills wished me to oversleep myself
or not: that is, whether he really took sufficient interest to