Leon walked past Ben’s glaring eyes without a blink of recognition, but I came along a moment later and promptly began explaining the mystery to him. “You see, Ben,” I told him, “I’ve got to trust you to keep this to yourself—I know you will, because it means a devil of a lot to me.... The truth is that the fellow you just saw is my twin brother. His name is Leonard, but we always called each other either Leon or Leonard—you know, just a kid trick we never got over.... I didn’t say anything about him before because I didn’t know he was in France. You see, he got into a scrape back home and disappeared; now he’s serving under a different name. That’s why we can’t be together much, because we look so much alike that anyone would notice the difference in names and be suspicious.... You see how it is, Ben. I suspected, when you told me about that fight, that it was my brother, but I could not quite bring myself to tell you the secret then. However, now it’s all right and I know you’ll keep it to yourself, won’t you?” He was grinning good-naturedly. “Aw, hell, yes!” he replied. “I knew there was somethin’ cockeyed goin’ on, but I wouldn’t ’a’ said nothing about it, anyway.”... So that was that. We wandered around then and finally had dinner and wine in a little place that stayed open on Sunday, but you had to enter by the back door. I paid for the grub and the wine. Indeed I bought plenty of wine and let Ben drink his fill, for I was anxious to get rid of him before eight o’clock. I suppose I could have asked him to chase along alone, but I didn’t, and the result was that he came back to Le Chien Rouge with me, although he was feeling so sleepy that I doubt if he knew exactly where he was at first. Leon didn’t appear on the dot, so we had to hang around the corner for some few minutes. Ben sat down on the doorstep and Esky went prowling around looking for something to interest him—or maybe he recognized the place because of the bar rag that was thrown at him when we were there last.... Just as Leon appeared, Ben grabbed my leg and said, “Leony, that bald-headed pirate in there is givin’ Esky a chunk o’ meat.” I looked down, and there was Ben, leaning against the side of the doorway, peering into the darkened barroom through a crack beneath the shutters. “I guess he knows it’s all right now,” I said, thinking at once that Lisa had explained to her husband and that now he was trying to make up with the pup. “You wait here for me, Ben,” I told him, as I went around the corner with Leon. Lisa welcomed us happily and exclaimed, “I have just tell him and he do not beleeve it!” Then she turned and called, “Pierre! Venez ici!” The old man came, saw, and was convinced. “Which is ze jeune fille?” he asked, grinning cheerfully.