"Yes," I replied slowly. "People do run against each other in unexpected places, don't they? Now I will wager something that you've forgotten my name?" He smiled again, with a relieved expression. "Well"--still hoarsely--"I'm afraid I have, for a moment. It'll come back, no doubt, but would you mind enlightening me, meanwhile?" "My name is Noel Stanton," I very quietly said. But I could have shouted aloud. Notwithstanding the extraordinary resemblance, this man was no more Harvey Farnham than I was! CHAPTER XXIII A Counterfeit Presentment We had not much talk together. The few questions which I cautiously put evidently rendered him uncomfortable, and I on my part, having made sure of one all-potent fact, was anxious to get away and think the puzzle over. I was at the last course of my dinner when the man entered, and having finished I rose. "Are you stopping long in San Francisco?" I asked, with my best air of carelessness. "A couple of days or so," he said. "See you again to-morrow, I daresay." It was plain that he was glad to get rid of me. Naturally he was afraid of all men, strangers to him, who claimed knowledge of him as Harvey Farnham. He was playing a bold and dangerous game, and no doubt he was aware that, unless he kept himself in hand, and never for an instant lost his presence of mind, any moment might find him beaten. So dizzy was I with the fumes of my discovery that my brain would not answer to my command. I could not think. I could only say over and over again--"Not Harvey Farnham! The fellow is a mere decoy!" Out in the open I knew that I should have a better chance of mastering myself. On the way to the door I stepped into the "office" again and glanced at the visitors' book. Harvey Farnham's name was written down opposite the number 249, and I knew, therefore, that his room must be near, and in the same wing in the back as mine. The glorious salt wind soon restored me to myself, and I wandered through some of the streets I had known and forgotten, thinking busily. I could understand much now that had been dark to me, though even yet far too much for my peace of mind remained hidden.