"He was found there--yes, but the poison was given to him in the Cafe Montmartre, and it was there that he died. I am behind the scenes in some of these matters, but I know enough to hold my tongue, or my London letter wouldn't be worth a pound a week. I am giving myself away to you now, Duncombe. I am risking a position which it has taken me twenty years to secure. I've got to tell you these things, and you must do as I tell you. Go back to London!"

Duncombe laughed as he rose to his feet.

"Not though the Vicomte's fate is to be mine to-night," he answered.

"The worse h.e.l.l this place is the worse the crew it must shelter. I should never hold my head up again if I sneaked off home and left the girl in their hands. I don't see how you can even suggest it."

"Only because you can't do the least good," Spencer answered. "And besides, don't run away with a false impression. The place is dangerous only for certain people. The authorities don't protect murderers or thieves except under special circ.u.mstances. The Vicomte's murderer and De Laurson's were brought to justice. Only they keep the name of the place out of it always. Tourists in shoals visit it, and visit safely every evening. They pay fancy prices for what they have, but I think they get their money's worth. But for certain cla.s.ses of people it is the decoy house of Europe. Foreign spies have babbled away their secrets there, and the greatest criminals of the world have whispered away their lives to some fair daughter of Judas at those tables. I, who am behind the scenes, tell you these things, Duncombe."

Duncombe smiled.

"To-morrow," he said, "you may add another victim to your chamber of horrors!"

CHAPTER VIII

DUNCOMBE'S "HOLD-UP"

The amber wine fell in a little wavering stream from his upraised gla.s.s on to the table-cloth below. He leaned back in his chair and gazed at his three guests with a fatuous smile. The girl in blue, with the dazzlingly fair hair and wonderful complexion, steadied his hand and exchanged a meaning look with the man who sat opposite. Surely the poor fool was ready for the plucking? But Madame, who sat beside her, frowned upon them both. She had seen things which had puzzled her. She signed to them to wait.

She leaned over and flashed her great black eyes upon him.

"Monsieur enjoys himself like this every night in Paris?"

A soft, a very seductive, voice. The woman who envied her success compared it to the purring of a cat. Men as a rule found no fault with it, especially those who heard it for the first time.

Duncombe set down his gla.s.s, now almost empty. He looked from the stain on the table-cloth into the eyes of Madame, and again she thought them very unlike the eyes of a drunken man.

"Why not? It's the one city in the world to enjoy one's self in.

Half-past four, and here we are as jolly as anything. Chucked out of everywhere in London at half-past twelve. 'Time, gentlemen, please!'

And out go the lights. Jove, I wonder what they'd think of this at the Continental! Let's--let's have another bottle."

The fair-haired girl--Flossie to her friends, Mademoiselle Mermillon until you had been introduced--whispered in his ear. He shook his head vaguely. She had her arm round his neck. He removed it gently.

"We'll have another here first anyhow," he declared. "Hi, Garcon! Ring the bell, there's a good chap, Monsieur--dash it, I've forgotten your name. No, don't move. I'll do it myself."

He rose and staggered towards the door.

"The bell isn't that way, Monsieur," Madame exclaimed. "It is to the right. Louis, quick!"

Monsieur Louis sprang to his feet. There was a queer grating little sound, followed by a sharp click. Duncombe had swung round and faced them. He had turned the key in the door, and was calmly pocketing it.

The hand which held that small shining revolver was certainly not the hand of a drunken man.

They all three looked at him in wonder--Madame, Monsieur Louis, and Mademoiselle Flossie. The dark eyebrows of Madame almost met, and her eyes were full of the promise of evil things. Monsieur Louis, cowering back from that steadily pointed revolver, was white with the inherited cowardice of the degenerate. Flossie, who had drunk more wine than any of them, was trying to look as though it were a joke. Duncombe, with his disordered evening clothes, his stained shirt-front and errant tie, was master of the situation. He came and stood a few feet away from them.

His blundering French accent and slow choice of words had departed. He spoke to them without hesitation, and his French was almost as good as their own.

"I want you to keep your places," he said, "and listen to me for a few minutes. I can a.s.sure you I am neither mad nor drunk. I have a few questions to ask you, and if your answers are satisfactory you may yet find my acquaintance as profitable as though I had been the pigeon I seemed. Keep your seat, Monsieur le Baron!"

Monsieur Louis, who had half risen, sat down again hastily. They all watched him from their places around the table. It was Madame whom he addressed more directly--Madame with the jet black hair and golden earrings, the pale cheeks and scarlet lips.

"I invited you into a private room here," he said, "because what I have said to you three is between ourselves alone. You came, I presume, because it promised to be profitable. All that I want from you is information. And for that I am willing to pay."

Monsieur Louis interposed. He stroked his little black moustache with a much beringed hand. With the other he gesticulated.

"Monsieur talks reasonably," he declared, "but why all this mystery? Why this feigned drunkenness? Why the show of arms? If we can help Monsieur--it is an affair of pleasure, and if he chooses to make a present to these ladies in return--why, no doubt they will be charmed.

Me, I presume, he has no intention to insult. Permit me, Monsieur."

He drew a card from a small gold case, and presented it to Duncombe, who accepted it with a little bow.

"If I can aid you in any way," Monsieur Louis continued, "I am entirely at your service, but I require first of all that in addressing us you recognize my position as a French n.o.bleman, who amuses himself in this place as you, Monsieur, also do, and also that you unlock that door."

Duncombe smiled quietly.

"Monsieur le Baron," he said, "I think that we are very well as we are--secure from interruption. I have sent others here on this same mission, and they did not succeed. Both of these ladies, I believe, have been approached for the information I desire, and they have thought well to withhold it. I have set my heart upon success this time, and I wish to secure at least the opportunity of being heard."

Monsieur Louis shrugged his shoulders.

"There are secrets," he murmured; "affairs of honor----"

Duncombe interrupted him.

"Monsieur Louis," he said, "I am not so young as I look, and I have lived in Paris. I know that this cafe, for all its outward smartness, bears perhaps the worst reputation in Europe. I have heard of you three many times--the 'Trinity from h.e.l.l,' they call you sometimes, I think.

You see I know where I am and the risk I run. Even this little room has its secrets--a murder or two, I believe, and other things--secrets which I don't suppose there is gold enough in France to buy. Well, I don't want to buy them. You can go your way so far as I am concerned. There is only one thing I want to know from you, and for that I offer you--the ladies, of course, I mean--five thousand francs each."

"Five thousand francs!" Madame murmured.

Mademoiselle Flossie said nothing, but her eyes shone.

"The question, Monsieur?"

"What has become of Mademoiselle Phyllis Poynton, the young English lady?"

The eyes of Madame seemed to narrow for a moment. Monsieur Louis lit a cigarette with fingers which shook a little, and the fair face of Mademoiselle Flossie was suddenly white. Then they all three looked at one another.

"Do you know whom Monsieur may mean?"

"Not I!"

"An English girl! There are none come here."

"Mademoiselle Poynton! It is a name unheard of."

The young Englishman smiled upon them grimly.

"Madame," he said, "you have in your satchel--don't move, if you please--a roll of French notes--indeed you must not move--very cleverly abstracted from my pocket by my charming young companion, Mademoiselle Flossie here. Now I have at least half a dozen friends in the cafe below whom I could summon here by touching that bell, and the identification of those notes would be a perfectly simple matter. Shall I do it? Or will you earn another roll by giving me the information I seek?"

Madame leaned forward and whispered in the man's ear. Monsieur Louis nodded.