“I came to find you,” said Tony hastily. “Landed at Havana with Harding’s address as my only guide. He had, I found out, left the city, but I came across two or three men who seemed to know him, and one of them passed me on to his friends, who contrived to get me here. We travelled, for the most part, at night, hiding in the daytime, and got very little to eat, but most of the men I met did what they could for me when I told them that I had business with a leader of the Sin Verguenza.”
Appleby laughed a little. “You will find a bath yonder, and I’ll send you up some food,” he said. “Then come down when you are ready. You will find me on the veranda.”
He spent half an hour pacing up and down the veranda before Tony reappeared, and as it happened Harding came out from his room just then. The moon, which had risen higher now, flooded the veranda with silvery light. Harding glanced at the stranger and pointed to a cane chair, while Appleby, who was not sure whether he was glad or displeased to see him at the moment, introduced them. Tony, however, did not shake hands.
“I had the pleasure of meeting your daughter in England, Mr. Harding, and it was only owing to that fact I managed to get here at all,” he said. “You have evidently a good many friends in this country.”
“I am glad I have been of service,” said Harding, with a smile. “In the meanwhile I haven’t the slightest doubt that you and Appleby will excuse me.”
Tony looked at him gravely. “I understood from Miss Harding that you had reposed a good deal of trust in Appleby and that he had taken you into his confidence respecting something which happened in England.”
“You have surmised correctly,” said Harding.
“Then I would sooner you sat down and listened to me. It is, I fancy, likely that he has not told you all the story. You are not altogether unconcerned in it, since your daughter was the means of sending me here.”
Appleby made a little impatient gesture. “Tony,” he said sharply, “is it necessary?”
“I believe it is”; and Tony leaned forward in his chair. “It would be a favor if you sat down, sir.”