d health, or, at any rate, physically uninjured.

"The man has been drugged," said the lawyer, watching the Earl's
unavailing attempt to awaken the Frenchman. "Is, by any chance, Mr.
Curtis's room situated near this one?"

"It is just overhead," said the clerk.

"Dear me!"

Schmidt looked up at the ceiling as though his eyes might discern a
trap-door. "Is Mr. Curtis there now?"

"No, sir."

"Where is he?"

"He went out with a Mr. Devar."

"Oh! Do you know where he went to?"

Krantz was tempted to prevaricate, but Schmidt was a power in the
Central Hotel.

"I believe, sir, he is at the Plaza."

"A large hotel, near Central Park, is it not?" demanded the Earl
eagerly.

"My lord, pardon me." The lawyer was no believer in letting all the
world into your secrets, and the clerk's manner showed that he was far
from well posted in certain elements of the affair.

Valletort was for rushing forthwith off in a taxi to the Plaza; but
Schmidt vetoed the notion. He shared the Earl's conviction that
Hermione would be discovered there, but, before meeting her, he wanted
to obtain a great many particulars the lack of which in his client's
earlier story his legal acumen had already scented.

So he drew the impatient nobleman into a quiet corner of the
restaurant, and extracted from his unwilling lips certain details as to
Count Vassilan and the marriage project which had not been forthcoming
before.

Krantz seized the opportunity to call up Steingall on the telephone and
told him something, not all, of what had occurred. He did not say that
the Earl and Schmidt had actually seen de Courtois, and suppressed any
mention of his disclosure with reference to Curtis's whereabouts, not
that he wished to mislead the detective willfully, but he felt that he
had been indiscreet, and there was no need to proclaim the fact.
Moreover, he had never heard Hermione's name mentioned, or he was
gallant enough to have risked any trouble next day if a lady would be
saved distress thereby.

Schmidt's lawyer-like caution was destined to have far-reaching effects
on the night's history. It provided one of the minor rills of a
torrent which was gaining irresistible momentum, and would submerge
many people before its uncontrolled madness was exhausted. Had he
yielded to the Earl, and hurried to the Plaza at once, he would have
met Curtis and Steingall there, and those two men might have diverted
the bursting current of events into