Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/218

 a clear-minded, persistent man, and after a half-hour's walk in the enervating atmosphere of a Havana midday he pulls himself up with a start.

"Well," he says as he wipes the perspiration from his face, "I'm euchred this time, it appears, and must make the best of it. But this is the deciding trick, and by heaven," the detective grinds his teeth, "I will track Cyrus Felton down if it takes the rest of my life! I have it! I'll see if the son, Ralph Felton, is actually here, as Ashley believes. If he is, I will at least have something to show for my trip to this awfully hot hole. Now for something to eat at the grand hotel Pasaje, if I can find the way. It's mighty lucky I know some Spanish."

The shadows are lengthening toward night when Barker awakens from the sound slumber into which his "siesta" after a comfortable meal has developed. He is feeling greatly refreshed and ready to pick up again the tangled threads of the trail that he has followed so far.

"Now for a little stroll about the city, to see what the place is like," he thinks, as he lights a cigar and saunters down the broad street.

Half an hour later, Barker has strayed farther from the hotel than he realizes and has unwittingly penetrated into the most disreputable quarter of Havana. For a brief rest he enters a cafe, and seating himself at a table in a corner of a room orders a light drink, absent-mindedly speaking in English.

Two dark-browed, yellow-skinned Cubans, who have been conversing earnestly in low tones at a table adjoining Barker's, glower at the newcomer, but as he gives his order to the waiter in English they resume their interrupted conversation. Barker idly sips his jerez and wonders what Jack Ashley will say on receiving the letter he left for him in New York.

Suddenly the word "Americano," hissed by one of the two Cubans, arrests his attention and he strains his ears to hear in what connection the word was used. The pair are talking in low tones, but the detective's trained sense is able to comprehend the tenor of the conversation.

The Cubans are discussing the assassination of some