The Firefly of France | Page 9

room, and the door was opened.
There stood a girl,--a most attractive girl, the girl that I had seen
downstairs. Straight and slender, spiritedly gracious in bearing, with
gray eyes questioning us from beneath lashes of crinkly black, she was
a radiant figure as she stood facing us, with a coat of bright-blue velvet
thrown over her rosy gown.
"Beg pardon, miss," said the policeman, brightly, "this gintleman's been
robbed."
As her eyebrows went up a fraction, I could have murdered him, for

how else could she read his statement save that I took her for the thief?
"I am very sorry," I explained, bowing formally, "to disturb you. We
are hunting a thief who took French leave by my fire-escape. I must
have been mistaken--I thought that he dodged in again by this window.
You have not seen or heard anything of him, of course?"
"No, I haven't. But then, I just this instant came up from dinner," she
replied. Her low, contralto tones, quite impersonal, were yet delightful;
I could have stood there talking burglars with her till dawn. "Do you
wish to come in and make sure that he is not in hiding?" With a half
smile for which I didn't blame her, she moved a step aside.
"Certainly not!" I said firmly, ignoring a nudge from the policeman.
"He left before you came--there was ample time. It is not of the least
consequence, anyhow. Again I beg your pardon." As she inclined her
head, I bowed, and closed the door.
"I trust Mr. Bayne, that you are satisfied at last." This was the St. Ives
manager, and I did not like his tone.
"I am satisfied of several things," I retorted sharply, "but before I share
them with you, will you kindly tell me your name?"
"My name is Ritter," he said with dignity. "I confess I fail to see what
bearing--"
"Call it curiosity," I interrupted. "Doctor, favor me with yours."
The doctor peered at me over his glasses, hesitated, and then revealed
his patronym. It was Swanburger, he informed me.
"But, my dear sir, what on earth--"
"Merely," said I, with conviction, "that this isn't an Allies' night. It is
/Deutschland uber Alles/; the stars are fighting for the Teuton race.
Now, let's hear how you were christened," I added, turning to the house
detective, who looked even less sunny than before if that could be.

"See here, whatcher giving us?" snarled that somewhat unpolished
worthy. "My name's Zeitfeld; but I was born in this country, don't you
forget it, same as you."
"A great American personality," I remarked dreamily, "has declared
that in the hyphenate lies the chief menace to the United States. And
what's your name?" I asked the representative of law and order. "Is it
Schmidt?"
"No, sir," he responded, grinning; "it's O'Reilly, sorr."
"Thank heaven for that! You've saved my reason," I assured him as I
leaned against the wall and scanned the Germanic hordes.
"Mr. Ritter," said I, addressing that gentleman coldly, "when I am next
in New York I don't think I shall stop with you. The atmosphere here is
too hectic; you answer calls for help too slowly--calls, at least, in which
a guest indiscreetly tells you that he has caught a German thief. It looks
extremely queer, gentlemen. And there are some other points as well--"
But there I paused. I lacked the necessary conviction. After all I was the
average citizen, with the average incredulity of the far-fetched, the
melodramatic, the absurd. To connect the head waiter's panic at my
departure with the episode in my room, to declare that the floor clerks
had been called from their posts for a set purpose, and the halls
deliberately cleared for the thief, were flights of fancy that were beyond
me. The more fool I!
By the time I saw the last of the adventure I began that night--it was all
written in the nth power, and introduced in more or less important roles
the most charming girl in the world, the most spectacular hero of
France, the cleverest secret-service agent in the pay of the fatherland,
and I sometimes ruefully suspected, the biggest imbecile of the United
States in the person of myself--I knew better than to call any idea
impossible simply because it might sound wild. But at the moment my
education was in its initial stages, and turning with a shrug from three
scowling faces, I led my friendly bluecoat a little aside.

"I've no more time to-night to spend thief-catching, Officer," I told him.
I had just recalled my dinner, now utterly ruined, and Dunny, probably
at this instant cracking walnuts as fiercely as if each one were the
kaiser's head. "But I'm an amateur in these affairs, and you are a master.
Before I go,