Volpi’s face fell, but it was not for him to criticize his client’s orders, disappointing though they might be. Besides, he too had read the headlines in the newspapers, and he was a man of tact. The coffee was brought with as much ceremony as though it were the most elaborate dish in the menu, and if Volpi had any comments to make they were uttered only to his wife behind the desk.

Du Pine drank his coffee in slow deliberate sips. When it was finished, he lit a cigarette, and that done, another. Little by little the room emptied, but still he showed no signs of leaving. It was almost deserted when at last a man came in and went straight to the vacant seat at his table.

He was of medium height, his thin body clad in a grey suit and overcoat, that had seen better days. Neither his face nor his jerky cock-sparrowlike manner was particularly prepossessing, but there was something in his appearance, whether it was the close-cut sandy moustache or the set of his shoulders, that gave the impression that this had once been an officer—even a gentleman.

Du Pine looked up as he came in. His expression did not change, and when he spoke, only his lips moved.

“You’re very late, Eales,” he said in a low tone.

“Fog in the Channel,” answered Eales shortly. “A double brandy and soda,” he added to Volpi, who had appeared at his elbow.

Volpi expressed regret with voice, face and arms.

“Alas, sare, but I am afraid it is too late. These licensing hours——”

“None the less, I think you can get my friend what he wants,” put in Du Pine.

“Ah, monsieur must not ask me——”

“But I do ask you,” was the cold rejoinder, and the drink was forthcoming immediately.

“I can’t think why you wanted me to come to an out-of-the-way hole like this,” grumbled Eales as he put down his glass.

“Because it is out of the way. Things have been happening.”

“I know that.”

“I wonder,” said Du Pine with a penetrating stare, “just how much you do know?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know, for example, exactly where Ballantine is at this moment?”

“Why should I?”

“Do you know? was my question.”

“If it comes to that, do you?”

They looked at each other, mutually suspicious, and then as by common consent looked away.

“We are wasting time,” said Du Pine after a short pause. “You haven’t told me if your business went off satisfactorily.”

“Only because you haven’t asked me. In point of fact, it did.”

Eales’s hand went to his pocket. Du Pine stopped him with a restraining gesture.

“Not here,” he murmured. “I have to be rather careful just now. We will do our business in a taxi, if you don’t mind. Pay for your drink and we will be off.”