aid. "It concerns the affair in which we
are interested. Linger over your coffee and I will return."

Mr. Simpson nodded and Hunterleys left the restaurant with Felicia. His
wife, at whom he glanced for a moment, kept her head averted. She was
whispering in the ear of the gallant Monsieur Douaille. Selingman,
catching Draconmeyer's eye, winked at him solemnly.

"You have all the luck, my silent friend," he murmured.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE FATES ARE KIND

The Bar de Montmartre was many steps under the level of the street,
dark, smelly, and dilapidated. Its only occupants were a handful of
drivers from the carriage-stand opposite, who stared at Hunterleys in
amazement as he entered, and then rushed forward, almost in a body, to
offer their services. The man behind the bar, however, who had evidently
been forewarned, intervened with a few sharp words, and, lifting the
flap of the counter, ushered Hunterleys into a little room beyond.
Frenhofer was engaged there in amiable badinage with a young lady who
promptly disappeared at Hunterleys' entrance. Frenhofer bowed
respectfully.

"I must apologise," he said, "for bringing monsieur to such a place. It
is near the end now, and with Monsieur Roche in the hospital I ventured
to address myself to monsieur direct. Here I have the right to enter. I
make my suit to the daughter of the proprietor in order to have a safe
rendezvous when necessary. It is well that monsieur has come quickly. I
have tidings. I can disclose to monsieur the meeting-place for to-night.
If monsieur has fortune and the wit to make use of it, the opportunity I
shall give him is a great one. But pardon me. Before we talk business we
must order something."

He touched the bell. The proprietor himself thrust in his head,
bullet-shaped, with black moustache and unshaven chin. He wore no
collar, and the remainder of his apparel was negligible.

"A bottle of your best brandy," Frenhofer ordered. "The best, mind, Pere
Hanaut."

The man's acquiescence was as amiable as nature would permit.

"Monsieur will excuse me," Frenhofer went on, as the door was once more
closed, "but these people have their little ways. To sell a whole bottle
of brandy at five times its value, is to Monsieur le Proprietaire more
agreeable than to offer him rent for the hire of his room. He is outside
all the things in which we are concerned. He believes--pardon me,
monsieur--that we are engaged in a little smuggling transactio