often shift and change my quarters, and those of my household;
especially if I suspect I have some reason for doing so. It adds
interest to an otherwise uneventful life."

He was eying me sardonically, evidently gloating over the situation as
he found it.

"How did you get on that roof? Who let you inside the walls?" he
demanded, abruptly.

I merely smiled at him.

"That we can determine later," he observed, resuming command of himself.

I measured my chances, and found them at present a minus quantity. The
old man was separated from me by a table, and he held my own revolver
ready for instant use. So I stood tight and waited.

The room was an almost exact replica of the one in which I had spent the
night so short a time before; the same long narrow transom near the
ceiling, the same barred windows opening on the court, the same closet
against the blank wall. Hooper had evidently inhabited it for some days,
for it was filled with his personal belongings. Indeed he must have
moved in _en bloc_ when his ward had been moved out, for none of the
furnishings showed the feminine touch, and several articles could have
belonged only to the old man personally. Of such was a small iron safe
in one corner and a tall old-fashioned desk crammed with papers.

But if I decided overt action unwise at this moment, I decidedly went
into action the next. Hooper whistled and four Mexicans appeared with