e formidable Chief Inspector. "You come this way, please. Some
ladies call upon me this evening, and I do not want to frighten them."

"No," said Kerry, "you wouldn't, naturally." He stood aside as a door
at the further end of the room was opened. "After you, my friend. I said
'lead the way.'"

They mounted to the third floor of the restaurant. The room which they
had just quitted was used as an auxiliary dining and supper-room before
midnight, as Kerry knew. After midnight the centre table was unmasked,
and from thence onward to dawn, sometimes, was surrounded by roulette
players. The third floor he had never visited, but he had a shrewd idea
that it was not entirely reserved for the private use of the proprietor.

A babel of voices died away as the two men walked into a room rather
smaller than that below and furnished with little tables, cafe fashion.
At one end was a grand piano and a platform before which a velvet
curtain was draped. Some twenty people, men and women, were in the
place, standing looking towards the entrance. Most of the men and all
the women but one were in evening dress; but despite this common armor
of respectability, they did not all belong to respectable society.

Two of the women Kerry recognized as bearers of titles, and one was
familiar to him as a screen-beauty. The others were unclassifiable, but
all were fashionably dressed with the exception of a masculine-looking
lady who had apparently come straight off a golf course, and who later
was proved to be a well-known advocate of woman's rights. The men all
belonged to familiar types. Some of them were Jews.

Kerry, his feet widely apart and his hands thrust in his overcoat
pockets, stood staring at face after face and chewing slowly. The
proprietor glanced apologetically at his patrons and shrugged. Silence
fell upon the company. Then:

"I am a police officer," said Kerry sharply. "You will file out past me,
and I want a card from each of you. Those who have no cards will write
name and address here."

He drew a long envelope and a pencil from a pocket of his dinner jacket.
Laying the envelope and pencil on one of the little tables:

"Quick march!" he snapped. "You, sir!" shooting out his forefinger in
the direction of a tall, fair young man, "step out!"

Glancing helplessly about him, the young man obeyed, and approaching
Kerry:

"I say, officer," he whispered nervously, "can't you manage to keep
my name out of it? I mean to say,