"I told you that there was a man at the palazzo named Salvolio.

　　Salvolio was a man who had been undergoing a life sentence in oneof the prisons of southern Italy. In some mysterious fashion heescaped and got across the Adriatic in a small boat. How Karafound him I don't know. Salvolio was a very uncommunicativeperson. I was never certain whether he was a Greek or an Italian.

　　All that I am sure about is that he was the most unmitigatedvillain next to his master that I have ever met.

　　"He was a quick man with his knife and I have seen him kill one ofthe guards whom he had thought was favouring me in the matter ofdiet with less compunction than you would kill a rat.

　　"It was he who gave me this scar," John Lexman pointed to hischeek. "In his master's absence he took upon himself the task ofconducting a clumsy imitation of Kara's persecution. He gave me,too, the only glimpse I ever had of the torture poor Graceunderwent. She hated dogs, and Kara must have come to know thisand in her sleeping room - she was apparently better accommodatedthan I - he kept four fierce beasts so chained that they couldalmost reach her.

　　"Some reference to my wife from this low brute maddened me beyondendurance and I sprang at him. He whipped out his knife andstruck at me as I fell and I escaped by a miracle. He evidentlyhad orders not to touch me, for he was in a great panic of mind,as he had reason to be, because on Kara's return he discovered thestate of my face, started an enquiry and had Salvolio taken to thecourtyard in the true eastern style and bastinadoed until his feetwere pulp.

　　"You may be sure the man hated me with a malignity which almostrivalled his employer's. After Grace's death Kara went awaysuddenly and I was left to the tender mercy of this man.

　　Evidently he had been given a fairly free hand. The principalobject of Kara's hate being dead, he took little further interestin me, or else wearied of his hobby. Salvolio began hispersecutions by reducing my diet. Fortunately I ate very little.

　　Nevertheless the supplies began to grow less and less, and I wasbeginning to feel the effects of this starvation system when therehappened a thing which changed the whole course of my life andopened to me a way to freedom and to vengeance.

　　"Salvolio did not imitate the austerity of his master and inKara's absence was in the habit of having little orgies of hisown. He would bring up dancing girls from Durazzo for hisamusement and invite prominent men in the neighbourhood to hisfeasts and entertainments, for he was absolutely lord of thepalazzo when Kara was away and could do pretty well as he liked.

　　On this particular night the festivities had been more thanusually prolonged, for as near as I could judge by the day-lightwhich was creeping in through my window it was about four o'clockin the morning when the big steel-sheeted door was opened andSalvolio came in, more than a little drunk. He brought with him,as I judged, one of his dancing girls, who apparently wasprivileged to see the sights of the palace.

　　"For a long time he stood in the doorway talking incoherently in alanguage which I think must have been Turkish, for I caught one ortwo words.

　　"Whoever the girl was, she seemed a little frightened, I could seethat, because she shrank back from him though his arm was abouther shoulders and he was half supporting his weight upon her.

　　There was fear, not only in the curious little glances she shot atme from time to time, but also in the averted face. Her story Iwas to learn. She was not of the class from whence Salvolio foundthe dancers who from time to time came up to the palace for hisamusement and the amusement of his guests. She was the daughterof a Turkish merchant of Scutari who had been received into theCatholic Church.

　　"Her father had gone down to Durazzo during the first Balkan warand then Salvolio had seen the girl unknown to her parent, andthere had been some rough kind of courtship which ended in herrunning away on this very day and joining her ill-favoured loverat the palazzo. I tell you this because the fact had some bearingon my own fate.

　　"As I say, the girl was frightened and made as though to go fromthe dungeon. She was probably scared both by the unkempt prisonerand by the drunken man at her side. He, however, could not leavewithout showing to her something of his authority. He camelurching over near where I lay, his long knife balanced in hishand ready for emergencies, and broke into a string ofvituperations of the character to which I was quite hardened.

　　"Then he took a flying kick at me and got home in my ribs, butagain I experienced neither a sense of indignity nor any greathurt. Salvolio had treated me like this before and I had survivedit. In the midst of the tirade, looking past him, I was a newwitness to an extraordinary scene.

　　"The girl stood in the open doorway, shrinking back against thedoor, looking with distress and pity at the spectacle whichSalvolio's brutality afforded. Then suddenly there appearedbeside her a tall Turk. He was grey-bearded and forbidding. Shelooked round and saw him, and her mouth opened to utter a cry, butwith a gesture he silenced her and pointed to the darknessoutside.

　　"Without a word she cringed past him, her sandalled feet making nonoise. All this time Salvolio was continuing his stream of abuse,but he must have seen the wonder in my eyes for he stopped andturned.

　　"The old Turk took one stride forward, encircled his body with hisleft arm, and there they stood grotesquely like a couple who weregoing to start to waltz. The Turk was a head taller than Salvolioand, as I could see, a man of immense strength.

　　"They looked at one another, face to face, Salvolio rapidlyrecovering his senses . . . and then the Turk gave him a gentlepunch in the ribs. That is what it seemed like to me, butSalvolio coughed horribly, went limp in the other's arms anddropped with a thud to the ground. The Turk leant down soberlyand wiped his long knife on the other's jacket before he put itback in the sash at his waist.

　　"Then with a glance at me he turned to go, but stopped at the doorand looked back thoughtfully. He said something in Turkish whichI could not understand, then he spoke in French.

　　"'Who are you?' he asked.

　　"In as few words as possible I explained. He came over and lookedat the manacle about my leg and shook his head.

　　"'You will never be able to get that undone,' he said.

　　"He caught hold of the chain, which was a fairly long one, boundit twice round his arm and steadying his arm across his thigh, heturned with a sudden jerk. There was a smart 'snap' as the chainparted. He caught me by the shoulder and pulled me to my feet.

　　" 'Put the chain about your waist, Effendi,' he said, and he tooka revolver from his belt and handed it to me.

　　"'You may need this before we get back to Durazzo,' he said. Hisbelt was literally bristling with weapons - I saw three revolversbeside the one I possessed - and he had, evidently come preparedfor trouble. We made our way from the dungeon into theclean-smelling world without.

　　"It was the second time I had been in the open air for eighteenmonths and my knees were trembling under me with weakness andexcitement. The old man shut the prison door behind us and walkedon until we came up to the girl waiting for us by the lakeside.

　　She was weeping softly and he spoke to her a few words in a lowvoice and her weeping ceased.

　　"'This daughter of mine will show us the way,' he said, 'I do notknow this part of the country - she knows it too well.'

　　"To cut a long story short," said Lexman, "we reached Durazzo inthe afternoon. There was no attempt made to follow us up andneither my absence nor the body of Salvolio were discovered untillate in the afternoon. You must remember that nobody but Salvoliowas allowed into my prison and therefore nobody had the courage tomake any investigations.

　　"The old man got me to his house without being observed, andbrought a brother-in-law or some relative of his to remove theanklet. The name of my host was Hussein Effendi.

　　"That same night we left with a little caravan to visit some ofthe old man's relatives. He was not certain what would be theconsequence of his act, and for safety's sake took this trip,which would enable him if need be to seek sanctuary with some ofthe wilder Turkish tribes, who would give him protection.

　　"In that three months I saw Albania as it is - it was anexperience never to be forgotten!

　　"If there is a better man in God's world than Hiabam HusseinEffendi, I have yet to meet him. It was he who provided me withmoney to leave Albania. I begged from him, too, the knife withwhich he had killed Salvolio. He had discovered that Kara was inEngland and told me something of the Greek's occupation which Ihad not known before. I crossed to Italy and went on to Milan.

　　There it was that I learnt that an eccentric Englishman who hadarrived a few days previously on one of the South American boatsat Genoa, was in my hotel desperately ill.

　　"My hotel I need hardly tell you was not a very expensive one andwe were evidently the only two Englishmen in the place. I coulddo no less than go up and see what I could do for the poor fellowwho was pretty well gone when I saw him. I seemed to rememberhaving seen him before and when looking round for someidentification I discovered his name I readily recalled thecircumstance.

　　"It was George Gathercole, who had returned from South America.

　　He was suffering from malarial fever and blood poisoning and for aweek, with an Italian doctor, I fought as hard as any man couldfight for his life. He was a trying patient," John Lexman smiledsuddenly at the recollection, "vitriolic in his language,impatient and imperious in his attitude to his friends. He was,for example, terribly sensitive about his lost arm and would notallow either the doctor or my-self to enter the room until he wascovered to the neck, nor would he eat or drink in our presence.

　　Yet he was the bravest of the brave, careless of himself and onlyfretful because he had not time to finish his new book. Hisindomitable spirit did not save him. He died on the 17th ofJanuary of this year. I was in Genoa at the time, having gonethere at his request to save his belongings. When I returned hehad been buried. I went through his papers and it was then that Iconceived my idea of how I might approach Kara.

　　"I found a letter from the Greek, which had been addressed toBuenos Ayres, to await arrival, and then I remembered in a flash,how Kara had told me he had sent George Gathercole to SouthAmerica to report upon possible gold formations. I was determinedto kill Kara, and determined to kill him in such a way that Imyself would cover every trace of my complic............