"'Me either,' Farrell agreed heartily. 'I'm here for fresh air and exercise. Don't mind confessing to you I've no great fancy for this place. Man told me at dayjooney this morning he'd just come in from sitting under the palms before the Casino entrance. . . . All of a sudden a young fellow walked out and shot himself there, point-blank. Man who told me doesn't take any interest in play--over from Mentone for the day, just to see things.--Well, this young fellow, as I say, shot himself--put revolver to his forehead--there on the steps. And by George, sir, he was mopped up and into a sack within twenty seconds! One porter ready with sack, another to help, third with sponge to mop steps--stage clear almost before you could rub your eyes. . . . I just tell it to you as it was told to me, and by a man pretty far gone in consumption, so that you'd say he'd be cautious about lying.' "I lit another cigar. 'With so priceless a fool as this,' I said to myself, 'you must not be in a hurry, John Foe.' Aloud I said, 'I've no passion either, for this place. I wanted to see it, and I've seen it. I'll knock in at your room at eight o'clock, if that will suit you, and we'll discuss plans. For my part, I had a mind to go back to Cannes and start for a ramble among the Esterel.'" "To be brief, we struck the bargain and--incredible as you may find it--have been running in double harness ever since. . . . I couldn't have believed it myself, in prediction: but here it is--_and until a few hours ago Farrell never guessed_. "No: that is wrong. He never guessed at all. I told him. "It came to me, after the first week, as habitually as daily bread. We put in a couple of days at Mentone, another couple at Nice; then for a fortnight we made Cannes our centre, with a trip up to Grasse and several long tramps among the mountains. After that came St. Tropez, Costebello, Toulon, Marseilles, Montpellier--with excursions to Aigues-Mortes, the Pont du Gard and the rest of it. From Montpellier we turned right about on our tracks; took Cannes again, Antibes; drove along the whole Corniche in a two-horse barouche. There was a sort of compact that we'd do the whole Riviera--French and Italian--as thoroughly as tourists can do it; and we did--from Montpellier to Bordighera, from Bordighera to Genoa. And he never guessed. "I had two bad moments; by which I mean moments of unscientific impatience, sudden unworthy impulses to kill him and get rid of the job. Unscientific, unworthy--unsportsmanlike--to kill your priceless fish before he has even felt the hook!