me a better one," rapped Kerry. "I want to go upstairs."

"Your card, sir."

Kerry revealed his teeth in a savage smile and tossed his card on to the
desk before the concierge. He passed on, mounting the stairs at the end
of the passage. Dimly a bell rang; and on the first landing Kerry met a
heavily built foreign gentleman, who bowed.

"My dear Chief Inspector," he said gutturally, "what is this, please? I
trust nothing is wrong, eh?"

"Nothing," replied Kerry. "I just want to look round."

"A few friends," explained the suave alien, rubbing his hands together
and still bowing, "remain playing dominoes with me."

"Very good," rapped Kerry. "Well, if you think we have given them time
to hide the 'wheel' we'll go in. Oh, don't explain. I'm not worrying
about sticklebacks tonight. I'm out for salmon."

He opened a door on the left of the landing and entered a large
room which offered evidence of having been hastily evacuated by a
considerable company. A red and white figured cloth of a type much
used in Continental cafes had been spread upon a long table, and three
foreigners, two men and an elderly woman, were bending over a row of
dominoes set upon one corner of the table. Apparently the men were
playing and the woman was watching. But there was a dense cloud of cigar
smoke in the room, and mingled with its pungency were sweeter scents. A
number of empty champagne bottles stood upon a sideboard and an elegant
silk theatre-bag lay on a chair.

"H'm," said Kerry, glaring fiercely from the bottles to the players, who
covertly were watching him. "How you two smarts can tell a domino from a
door-knocker after cracking a dozen magnums gets me guessing."

He took up the scented bag and gravely handed it to the old woman.

"You have mislaid your bag, madam," he said. "But, fortunately, I
noticed it as I came in."

He turned the glance of his fierce eyes upon the man who had met him on
the landing, and who had followed him into the room.

"Third floor, von Hindenburg," he rapped. "Don't argue. Lead the way."

For one dangerous moment the man's brow lowered and his heavy face grew
blackly menacing. He exchanged a swift look with his friends seated at
the disguised roulette table. Kerry's jaw muscles protruded enormously.

"Give me another answer like that," he said in a tone of cold ferocity,
"and I'll kick you from here to Paradise."

"No offense--no offense," muttered the man, quailing before the savagery
of th