" Mr. Gaynsforth continued calmly, "is prepared to pay a
thousand pounds for full information and proof as to the nature of those
papers which were stolen from Mr. Hamilton Fynes on the night of March
22nd."

"A thousand pounds," Mr. Coulson repeated. "Gee whiz!"

"He is also," the Englishman continued, "prepared to pay another
thousand for a satisfactory explanation of the murder of Mr. Richard
Vanderpole on the following day."

"Say, your friend's got the stuff!" Mr. Coulson remarked admiringly.

"My friend is not a poor man," Mr. Gaynsforth admitted. "You see,
there's a sort of feeling abroad that these two things are connected.
I am not working on behalf of the police. I am not working on behalf of
any one who desires the least publicity. But I am working for some one
who wants to know and is prepared to pay."

"That's a very interesting job you're on, and no mistake," Mr. Coulson
declared. "I wonder you waste time coming over here on the spree when
you've got a piece of business like that to look after."

"I came over here," Mr. Gaynsforth replied, "entirely on the matter I
have mentioned to you."

"What, over here to Paris?" Mr. Coulson exclaimed.

"Not only to Paris," the other replied dryly, "but to discover one Mr.
James B. Coulson, whose health I now have the pleasure of drinking."

Mr. Coulson drained the glass which the waiter had just filled.

"Well, this licks me!" he exclaimed. "How any one in their senses could
believe that there was any connection between me and Hamilton Fynes or
that other young swell, I can't imagine."

"You knew Hamilton Fynes," Mr. Gaynsforth remarked. "That fact came out
at the inquest. You appeared to have known him better than most men. Mr.
Vanderpole had just left you when he was murdered,--that also came out
at the inquest."

"Kind of queer, wasn't it," Mr. Coulson remarked meditatively, "how I
seemed to get hung up with both of them? You may also remember that at
the inquest Mr. Vanderpole's business with me was testified to by the
chief of his department."

"Certainly," Mr. Gaynsforth answered. "However, that's neither here nor
there. Everything was properly arranged, so far as you were concerned,
of course. That doesn't alter my friend's convictions. This is a
business matter with me, and if the two thousand pounds don't sound
attractive enough, well, the amount must be revised, that's all. But
I want you to understand this, Mr. Coulson, I represent a man or a