maintained that the hotel was entirely blameless if any deception had
been practised. The Tirol did not tolerate anything that savoured of the
scandalous; the Tirol was a respectable house; the Tirol was ever
careful, always rigid in the protection of its good name; and so on and
so forth at great length and with great precision. But Mr. Githens had
two officers with him, and he demanded the person of the man calling
himself Roxbury Medcroft. The principal bank in the city was also
represented in the company of investigators. Likewise there was a
laconic gentleman from the British office.

Mr. Medcroft was out. Then, they agreed, it was necessary to see Mrs.
Medcroft, or the lady representing herself to be such. Mr. Githens was
permitted to go to her rooms in company with the manager of the hotel.
What transpired in those rooms during the next fifteen minutes would be
quite impossible to narrate short of an entire volume. Edith promptly
collapsed. Subsequently she became hysterical. She begged for time, and,
getting it, proceeded to threaten every one with prosecution.

"I _am_ Mrs. Medcroft!" she declared piteously. "Where is the American
consul? I demand the American consul!"

"What has the American government to do with it?" gruffly demanded Mr.
Githens.

"Mr.--Mr.--the gentleman whom you accuse is an American citizen!" she
stammered.

"Oho! Then he is not an Englishman?"

"I refuse to answer your questions. You are impertinent. I ask you, sir,