Presently the two halted, and separated.  The taller kept on to the east, to the old French town.  At length I saw him joined, as though by appointment, by another gentleman, one whose appearance at once gave me reason for a second look.  The severe air of the Canadian spring seemed not pleasing to him, and he wore his coat hunched up about his neck, as though he were better used to milder climes.  He accosted my young Englishman, and without hesitation the two started off together.  As they did so I gave an involuntary exclamation.  The taller man I had seen once before, the shorter, very many times—­in Washington!

“Yess,” commented my old scientist calmly; “so strange!  They go together.”

“Ah, you know them!” I almost fell upon him.

“Yess—­last night.  The tall one iss Mr. Peel, a young Englishman; the other is Mexican, they said—­Senor Yturrio, of Mexico.  He spoke much.  Me, I wass sleepy then.  But also that other tall one we saw go back—­that wass Captain Parke, also of the British Navy.  His ship iss the war boat Modeste—­a fine one.  I see her often when I walk on the riffer front, there.”

I turned to him and made some excuse, saying that presently I would join him again at the hotel.  Dreamily as ever, he smiled and took his leave.  For myself, I walked on rapidly after the two figures, then a block or so ahead of me.

I saw them turn into a street which was familiar to myself.  They passed on, turning from time to time among the old houses of the French quarter.  Presently they entered the short side street which I myself had seen for the first time the previous night.  I pretended to busy myself with my pipe, as they turned in at the very gate which I knew, and knocked at the door which I had entered with my mysterious companion!

The door opened without delay; they both entered.

So, then, Helena von Ritz had other visitors!  England and Mexico were indeed conferring here in Montreal.  There were matters going forward here in which my government was concerned.  That was evident.  I was almost in touch with them.  That also was evident.  How, then, might I gain yet closer touch?

At the moment nothing better occurred to me than to return to my room and wait for a time.  It would serve no purpose for me to disclose myself, either in or out of the apartments of the baroness, and it would not aid me to be seen idling about the neighborhood in a city where there was so much reason to suppose strangers were watched.  I resolved to wait until the next morning, and to take my friend Von Rittenhofen with me.  He need not know all that I knew, yet in case of any accident to myself or any sudden contretemps, he would serve both as a witness and as an excuse for disarming any suspicion which might be entertained regarding myself.

The next day he readily enough fell in with my suggestion of a morning stroll, and again we sallied forth, at about nine o’clock, having by that time finished a dejeuner a la fourchette with Jacques Bertillon, which to my mind compared unfavorably with one certain other I had shared.