CHAPTER XVI
UNDER SURVEILLANCEI paid my bill, strolled out, and in the doorway encountered a man I knew slightly--a young officer--with whom I paused to chat, thereby blocking the doorway temporarily, with the result that I found my friend the spy--as I was now convinced he was--at my elbow. My unexpected halt had pulled him up short.
"Pardon!" I said with the utmost politeness, stepping aside, so he had to pass out, though I guessed he was angry enough at losing my conversation, for I was telling Lieutenant Mirakoff of my arrest,--as a great joke, at which we both laughed uproariously.
"They should have seen that you were a foreigner, and therefore quite mad,--and harmless," he cried.
"Now, I ought to call you out for that!" I asserted.
"At your service!" he answered, still laughing,
