It happens that I am myself endowed with an unusual tenacity of vision.  I could, for instance, easily outstare any man I ever met.  Yet, as I continued to stare at this man, I was conscious that it was only by an effort of will that I was able to resist a baleful something which seemed to be passing from his eyes to mine.  It might have been imagination, but, in that sense, I am not an imaginative man; and, if it was, it was imagination of an unpleasantly vivid kind.  I could understand how, in the case of a nervous, or a sensitive temperament, the fellow might exercise, by means of the peculiar quality of his glance alone, an influence of a most disastrous sort, which given an appropriate subject in the manifestation of its power might approach almost to the supernatural.  If ever man was endowed with the traditional evil eye, in which Italians, among modern nations, are such profound believers, it was he.

When we had stared at each other for, I daresay, quite five minutes, I began to think I had had about enough of it So, by way of breaking the ice, I put to him a question.

‘May I ask how you found your way into my back yard?’

He did not reply in words, but, raising his hands he lowered them, palms downward, with a gesture which was peculiarly oriental.

’Indeed?—­Is that so?—­Your meaning may be lucidity itself to you, but, for my benefit, perhaps you would not mind translating it into words.  Once more I ask, how did you find your way into my back yard?’

Again nothing but the gesture.

’Possibly you are not sufficiently acquainted with English manners and customs to be aware that you have placed yourself within reach of the pains and penalties of the law.  Were I to call in the police you would find yourself in an awkward situation,—­and, unless you are presently more explanatory, called in they will be.’

By way of answer he indulged in a distortion of the countenance which might have been meant for a smile,—­and which seemed to suggest that he regarded the police with a contempt which was too great for words.

’Why do you laugh—­do you think that being threatened with the police is a joke?  You are not likely to find it so.—­Have you suddenly been bereft of the use of your tongue?’

He proved that he had not by using it

‘I have still the use of my tongue.’

’That, at least, is something.  Perhaps, since the subject of how you got into my back yard seems to be a delicate one, you will tell me why you got there.’

‘You know why I have come.’

’Pardon me if I appear to flatly contradict you, but that is precisely what I do not know.’

‘You do know.’

’Do I?—­Then, in that case, I presume that you are here for the reason which appears upon the surface,—­to commit a felony.’

‘You call me thief?’

‘What else are you?’

‘I am no thief.—­You know why I have come.’