CHAPTER II

A MIDNIGHT RAID


I could see at once that neither of the two men who confronted me had
really believed that the room into which their victim had escaped was
already occupied by any other person than the one of whom they were in
pursuit. Their expression of surprise was altogether genuine. I myself
was, perhaps, equally taken aback. Nothing in their appearance suggested
in the least the midnight assassin! I turned towards the one who had
leaned the door up against the wall, and addressed him.

"May I ask to what I am indebted for the pleasure of this unexpected
visit?" I inquired.

The man took out a handkerchief and mopped his forehead. He was short and
stout, with a bushy brown beard, and eyes which blinked at me in
amazement from behind his gold-rimmed spectacles. He wore a grey tweed
travelling suit, and brown boots. He had exactly the air of a prosperous
middle-class tradesman from the provinces.

"I am afraid, sir," he said, "that we have made a mistake--in which case
we shall owe you a thousand apologies. We are in search of a friend whom
we certainly believed that we had seen enter your room."

Now all the time he was talking his eyes were never still. Every inch of
my room that was visible they ransacked. His companion, too, was engaged
in the same task. There were no traces of my visitor to be seen.