wful fiasco in Chicago! She's hiding
now at a little hotel in Soho. She absolutely declined to come to my
hotel. I've done what I could for the moment. As I was driving by here
just now I saw the rocket and I thought of you. I thought you ought to
know it. I thought it was my duty to tell you."

She held her muff to her mouth. She seemed to be trembling.

A heavy hand was laid on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir," said a strong, rough voice, "are you the gent that
fired off the rocket? It's against the law to do that kind o' thing
here, and you ought to know it. I shall have to trouble you--"

It was a policeman of the C Division.

Sir John was disappearing, with his stealthy and conspiratorial air,
down the staircase.

CHAPTER VIII

DEALING WITH ELSIE

I

The headquarters of the Azure Society were situate in Marloes
Road--for no other reason than that it happened so. Though certain
famous people inhabit Marloes Road, no street could well be less
fashionable than this thoroughfare, which is very arid and very long,
and a very long way off the centre of the universe.

"The Azure Society, you know!" Edward Henry added, when he had given
the exact address to the chauffeur of the taxi.

The chauffeur, however, did not know, and did not seem to be ashamed
of his ignorance. His attitude indicated that he despised Marloes
Road and was not particularly anxious for his vehicle to be seen
therein--especially on a wet night--but that nevertheless he would
endeavour to reach it. When he did reach it, and observed the large
concourse of shining automobiles that struggled together in the
rain in front of the illuminated number named by Edward Henry, the
chauffeur admitted to himself that for once he had been mistaken,
and his manner of receiving money from Edward Henry was generously
respectful.

Originally, the headquarters of the Azure Society had been a seminary
and schoolmistress's house. The thoroughness with which the buildings
had been transformed showed that money was not among the things which
the Society had to search for. It had rich resources, and it had also
high social standing; and the deferential commissionaires at the doors
and the fluffy-aproned, appealing girls who gave away programmes in
the _foyer_ were a proof that the Society, while doubtless anxious
about such subjects as the persistence of individuality after death,
had no desire to reconstitute the community on a democratic basis. I