“I did play football—some time ago.”

“I saw you against Cornell—when was it?—two years ago. You were magnificent. How does it happen that—”

“That I’m here?” Hugo looked directly into Shayne’s eyes.

“Well—I have no intention of prying into your affairs.”

“Then I’ll tell you. Why not?” Hugo drank his wine. “I killed a man—in the game—and quit. Beat it.”

Shayne accepted the statement calmly. “That’s tough. I can understand your desire to get out from under. Things like that are bad when you’re young.”

“What else could I have done?”

“Nothing. What are you going to do? Rather, what were you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Hugo answered slowly. “What do you do? What do people generally do?” He felt the question was drunken, but Shayne accepted it at its face value.

“I’m one of those people who have too much money to be able to do anything I really care about, most of the time. The family keeps me in sight and control. But I’m going to cut away to-morrow.”

“In the Foreign Legion? I’ll go with you.”

“Splendid!” They shook hands across the table.

Three hours later found them at another café. They had been walking part of the time in the throngs on the street. For a while they had stood outside a newspaper office watching the bulletins. They were quite drunk.

“Old man,” Shayne said, “I’m mighty glad I found you.”

“Me, too, old egg. Where do we go next?”

“I don’t know. What’s your favourite vice? We can locate it in Marseilles.”

Hugo frowned. “Well, vice is so limited in its scope.”

His companion chuckled. “Isn’t it? I’ve always said vice was narrow. The next time I see Aunt Emma I’m going to say: ‘Emma, vice is becoming too narrow in its scope.’ She’ll be furious and it will bring her to an early demise and I’ll inherit a lot more money, and that will be the real tragedy. She’s a useless old fool, Aunt Emma. Never did a valuable thing in her life. Goes in for charity—just like we go in for golf and what-not. Oh, well, to hell with Aunt Emma.”

Hugo banged his glass on the table. “Garçon! Encore deux whiskey à l’eau and to hell with Aunt Emma.”

“Like to play roulette?”

“Like to try.”

They climbed into a taxi. Shayne gave an address and they were driven to another quarter of the town. In a room packed with people in evening clothes they played for an hour. Several people spoke to Shayne and he introduced Hugo to them. Shayne won and Hugo lost. They went out into the night. The streets were quieter in that part of town. Two girls accosted them.

«That gives me an idea,» Shayne said. “Let’s find a phone. Maybe we can get Marcelle and Claudine.”