A private informer who knows what he is doing can soon make a barmaid his friend. I engaged her in harmless banter then eventually broached, 'I'm looking for someone; you may have seen him-he often wears a cloak in a rather evil shade of green.'

I was not surprised when the beauteous Tullia recognized my man; on noticing Tullia, most males in this locality must rapidly join her mother's clientele. 'He lives across the alley-' She came to the doorway and pointed out the small square window of the room where he lodged. I started to like him. His surroundings looked pretty insalubrious. The indications were that the lad in green lived as miserably as me.

'Wonder if he's there now…'

'I can look,' offered Tullia.

'How's that?' She signalled upwards with her eyes. They had the usual arrangements of steps up the inside wall which led to a boarded attic where the proprietors lived and slept. There would be one long window over the shop entrance, to provide all their light and air. A lively young lady with an interest in people would naturally spend her idle moments looking out at men.

Tullia prepared to skip up the steps obligingly. I might have scrambled aloft with her but I guessed her mother was lurking above, which spoiled the fun.

'Thanks! I won't bother him at the moment.' Whoever he was and whatever he wanted, no one was going to pay me for disturbing his lunch. 'You know anything about him?'

She looked at me warily, but I had easy-going manners and all my curls were natural; besides, I had left her mother a decent tip. 'His name's Barnabas. He came here about a week ago-' As she spoke I was thinking; the name Barnabas had cropped up somewhere else quite recently. 'He paid in advance for a three-month lease-without arguing!' she marvelled. 'When I told him that he was stupid, he just laughed and said he'll be rich one day-'