The Delorme found
that out, then that his ancestral acres bordered on Long Island Sound,
and finally that the Sybarite was loafing its head off. What could be
more simple, she suggested, than that monsieur should ballast his
private yacht with champagne on the homeward voyage, make his landfall
some night in the dark of the moon, and put the stuff ashore on his own
property before morning. Did he fall for it? Well, I just guess he
did!"

"This is all most interesting, monsieur, but...." "Where do Monk and I
come in? Oh, like master, like men. Liane was too wise to crab her act
by proposing anything really wicked to the Owner, and wise enough to
know nothing could shock the skipper. And I was wise enough not to let
him get away with anything unless I sat in on the deal.

"Mademoiselle played all her cards face upwards with us. She and de
Lorgnes, she said, were losing money by disposing of their loot this
side, especially with European currency at its present stage of
depreciation. And so long as the owner was doing a little dirty work,
why shouldn't we get together and do something for ourselves on the
side? If champagne could be so easily smuggled into the States, why not
diamonds? We formed a joint-stock company on the spot."

"And made your first coup at the Chateau de Montalais!"

"Not the first, but the biggest. De Lorgnes' mouth had been watering
for the Montalais stuff for a long time, it seems. My boss had private
business of a nature we won't enter into, in London, and gave me a week
off and the use of his car. We made up the party, toured down the Rhone
valley, and then back by way of the Cevennes, just to get the lay of
the land. I don't think there can be much more you need to know."

"Monsieur is too modest."

"Oh, about me? Why, I guess I'm not an uncommon phenomenon of the
times. I was a good citizen before the War, law-abiding and everything.
If you'd told me then I'd be in this galley to-day, I'd probably have
knocked you for a goal. I had a flourishing young business of my own
and was engaged to be married... When I got back from hell over here, I
found my girl married to another man, my business wrecked, what was
left of it crippled by extortionate taxation to support a government
that was wasting money like a drunken sailor and too cynical to keep
its solemn promises to the men who had fought for it. I had to take a
job as secretary to a man I couldn't respect, and now... Well, if I can
get a