there, and that he would now reveal his identity and speak of the
tiara. To my surprise, however, he did nothing of the sort.

"'You have an almost supernatural gift,' he said. 'My name is
Bunker. I am stopping at the Savoy. I AM an American. I WAS rich
when I arrived here, but I'm not quite so bloated with wealth as I
was, now that I have paid my first week's bill. I HAVE lost my
watch; such a watch, too, as you describe, even to the dents. Your
only mistake was that the dents were made by my son John, and not
Willie; but even there I cannot but wonder at you, for John and
Willie are twins, and so much alike that it sometimes baffles even
their mother to tell them apart. The watch has no very great value
intrinsically, but the associations are such that I want it back, and
I will pay 200 pounds for its recovery. I have no clew as to who
took it. It was numbered--'

"Here a happy thought struck me. In all my description of the watch
I had merely described my own, a very cheap affair which I had won at
a raffle. My visitor was deceiving me, though for what purpose I did
not on the instant divine. No one would like to suspect him of
having purloined his wife's tiara. Why should I not deceive him, and
at the same time get rid of my poor chronometer for a sum that
exceeded its value a hundredfold?"

"Good business!" cried Shylock.

The stranger smiled and bowed.

"Excellent," he said. "I took the words right out of his mouth. 'It
was numbered 86507B!' I cried, giving, of course, the number of my