" I allowed, lighting another
cigarette, "but I warn you I shall make him tell me the truth."

Louis smiled inscrutably.

"Why not, monsieur?" he said.

"Tell me this, at any rate, Louis," I asked. "What is it that you hope
for from this evening? You believe that some one will break in with
the idea of robbing or else murdering Mr. Delora. They will find me
there instead. What is it you hope,--that they will kill me, or that
I shall kill them, or what?"

"That is a very reasonable question," Louis admitted. "I will answer
it. In the first place, I would have them know that they have not all
the wits on their side, and if they plot, we, too, can counterplot. In
the second place, I wish you to see the man or the men face to face
who make this attempt, and be prepared, if necessary, to recognize
them hereafter. And in the third place, there is one man to whom, if
he should himself make the attempt, I should be very glad indeed if
harm came of it."

"Thank you, Louis," I said, "I am not proposing to do murder if I can
help it."

"One must defend one's self," Louis said.

"Naturally," I answered, "up to a certain point. You have nothing more
to tell me, then?"

"Nothing, sir," Louis answered calmly. "I wish you once more _bonne
fortune_!"

I nodded, and left the cafe. Of the hall-porter I made an inquiry as
to the man who had had a fit in the cafe earlier in the evening.

"The doctor has been to see him twice, sir," the man told me. "It was
a sort of apoplectic stroke, brought on by something which he had
eaten."

"Will he recover?" I asked.

"The doctor says it is serious," the man answered, "but that with
careful nursing he will pull round. We have just sent a telegram to a
lady in Paris to come over."

I smiled as I rang the bell for the lift. So I might see my lady of
the turquoises again.

CHAPTER XIX

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

Arrived in my room, I changed my dress-coat for a smoking-jacket, and
my patent shoes for loose slippers. Then I suddenly discovered that I
had no cigarettes. I glanced at the clock. It was only half-past
ten. I had still half an hour to spare.

I locked up my room and descended by the lift to the entrance hall. My
friend the hall-porter was standing behind his counter, doing nothing.

"I wish you would send a boy into the cafe," I said, "and ask Louis to
send me a box of my cigarettes."

"With pleasure, sir," the man answered. "By the bye," he added, "Louis
is not