"I wonder," she said, "if you remember waiting upon my brother last Thursday week. He was tall and fair, and something like me. He had just arrived in Paris."

Monsieur Alphonse smiled. He rarely forgot a face, and the young Englishman's tip had been munificent.

"Perfectly, Mademoiselle," he answered. "They sent for me because Monsieur spoke no French."

"My chambermaid, Marie, told me that you might perhaps know how he proposed to spend the evening," she continued. "He was quite a stranger in Paris, and he may have asked for some information."

Monsieur Alphonse smiled, and extended his hands.

"It is quite true," he answered. "He asked me where to go, and I say to the Folies Bergeres. Then he said he had heard a good deal of the supper cafes, and he asked me which was the most amusing. I tell him the Cafe Montmartre. He wrote it down."

"Do you think that he meant to go there?" she asked.

"But certainly. He promised to come and tell me the next day how he amused himself."

"The Cafe Montmartre. Where is it?" she asked.

"In the Place de Montmartre. But Mademoiselle pardons--she will understand that it is a place for men."

"Are women not admitted?" she asked.

Alphonse smiled.

"But--yes. Only Mademoiselle understands that if a lady should go there she would need to be very well escorted."

She rose and slipped a coin into his hand.

"I am very much obliged to you," she said. "By the bye, have any other people made inquiries of you concerning my brother?"

"No one at all, Mademoiselle!" the man answered.

She almost slammed the door behind when she went out.

"And they say that the French police are the cleverest in the world,"

she exclaimed indignantly.

Monsieur Alphonse watched her through the gla.s.s pane.

"_Ciel!_ But she is pretty!" he murmured to himself.

She turned into the writing-room, and taking off her gloves she wrote a letter. Her pretty fingers were innocent of rings, and her handwriting was a little shaky. Nevertheless, it is certain that not a man pa.s.sed through the room who did not find an excuse to steal a second glance at her. This is what she wrote:--

"MY DEAR ANDREW,--I am in great distress here, and very unhappy. I should have written to you before, but I know that you have your own trouble to bear just now, and I hated to bother you. I arrived here punctually on the date arranged upon between Guy and myself, and found that he had arrived the night before, and had engaged a room for me. He was out when I came. I changed my clothes and sat down to wait for him. He did not return. I made inquiries and found that he had left the hotel at eight o'clock the previous evening. To cut the matter short, ten days have now elapsed and he has not yet returned.

"I have been to the Emba.s.sy, to the police, and to the Morgue.

Nowhere have I found the slightest trace of him. No one seems to take the least interest in his disappearance. The police shrug their shoulders, and look at me as though I ought to understand--he will return very shortly they are quite sure.

At the Emba.s.sy they have begun to look upon me as a nuisance.

The Morgue--Heaven send that I may one day forget the horror of my hasty visits there. I have come to the conclusion, Andrew, that I must search for him myself. How, I do not know; where, I do not know. But I shall not leave Paris until I have found him.

"Andrew, what I want is a friend here. A few months ago I should not have hesitated a moment to ask you to come to me.

To-day that is impossible. Your presence here would only be an embarra.s.sment to both of us. Do you know of any one who would come? I have not a single relative whom I can ask to help me.

Would you advise me to write to Scotland Yard for a detective, or go to one of these agencies? If not, can you think of any one who would come here and help me, either for your sake as your friend, or, better still, a detective who can speak French and whom one can trust? All our lives Guy and I have congratulated ourselves that we have no relation nearer than India. I am finding out the other side of it now.

"I know that you will do what you can for me, Andrew. Write to me by return.

"Yours in great trouble and distress,

"PHYLLIS POYNTON."

She sealed and addressed her letter, and saw it despatched. Afterwards she crossed the courtyard to the restaurant, and did her best to eat some dinner. When she had finished it was only half-past eight. She rang for the lift and ascended to the fourth floor. On her way down the corridor a sudden thought struck her. She took a key from her pocket and entered the room which her brother had occupied.

His things were still lying about in some disorder, and neither of his trunks was locked. She went down on her knees and calmly proceeded to go through his belongings. It was rather a forlorn hope, but it seemed to her just possible that there might be in some of his pockets a letter which would throw light upon his disappearance. She found nothing of the sort, however. There were picture postcards, a few photographs, and a good many restaurant bills, but they were all from places in Germany and Austria. At the bottom of the second trunk, however, she found something which he had evidently considered it worth while to preserve carefully.

It was a thick sheet of official-looking paper, bearing at the top an embossed crown, and covered with German writing. It was numbered at the top "seventeen," and it was evidently an odd sheet of some doc.u.ment. She folded it carefully up, and took it back with her to her own room. Then, with the help of a German dictionary, she commenced to study it. At the end of an hour she had made out a rough translation, which she read carefully through. When she had finished she was thoroughly perplexed.

She had an uncomfortable sense of having come into touch with something wholly unexpected and mysterious.

"What am I to do?" she said to herself softly.

"What can it mean? Where on earth can Guy--have found this?"

There was no one to answer her, no one to advise. An overwhelming sense of her own loneliness brought the tears into her eyes. She sat for some time with her face buried in her hands. Then she rose up, calmly destroyed her translation with minute care, and locked away the mysterious sheet at the bottom of her dressing-bag. The more she thought of it the less, after all, she felt inclined to connect it with his disappearance.

CHAPTER IV

THE FALLING OF THE HANDKERCHIEF

Monsieur Albert looked over her shoulder for the man who must surely be in attendance--but he looked in vain.

"Mademoiselle wishes a table--for herself alone!" he repeated doubtfully.

"If you please," she answered.

It was obvious that Mademoiselle was of the cla.s.s which does not frequent night cafes alone, but after all that was scarcely Monsieur Albert's concern. She came perhaps from that strange land of the free, whose daughters had long ago kicked over the barriers of s.e.x with the same abandon that Mademoiselle Flossie would display the soles of her feet a few hours later in their national dance. If she had chanced to raise her veil no earthly persuasions on her part would have secured for her the freedom of that little room, for Monsieur Albert's appreciation of likeness was equal to his memory for faces. But it was not until she was comfortably ensconced at a corner table, from which she had a good view of the room, that she did so, and Monsieur Albert realized with a philosophic shrug of the shoulders the error he had committed.

Phyllis looked about her with some curiosity. It was too early for the habitues of the place, and most of the tables were empty. The scarlet-coated band were smoking cigarettes, and had not yet produced their instruments. The conductor curled his black moustache and stared hard at the beautiful young English lady, without, however, being able to attract a single glance in return. One or two men also tried to convey to her by smiles and glances the fact that her solitude need continue no longer than she chose. The unattached ladies put their heads together and discussed her with little peals of laughter. To all of these things she remained indifferent. She ordered a supper which she ate mechanically, and wine which she scarcely drank. All the while she was considering. Now that she was here what could she do? Of whom was she to make inquiries? She scanned the faces of the newcomers with a certain grave curiosity which puzzled them. She neither invited nor repelled notice. She remained entirely at her ease.

Monsieur Albert, during one of his peregrinations round the room, pa.s.sed close to her table. She stopped him.

"I trust that Mademoiselle is well served!" he remarked with a little bow.

"Excellently, I thank you," she answered.

He would have pa.s.sed on, but she detained him.