ou this evening. Checks, as you must be
aware, are unacceptable. I will meet you at Piccadilly Circus, outside
the entrance to the London Pavilion, at nine o'clock this evening,
and you will bring with you the twenty-five guineas in cash. You will
arrange to absent yourself during the following day?"

"Of course, of course! At nine o'clock at Piccadilly Circus?"

"Exactly."

M. Gaston, this business satisfactorily completed, made his way to his
own room by a somewhat devious route, not wishing to encounter anyone of
his numerous acquaintances whilst in an apparent state of ill-health so
calculated to excite compassion. He avoided the lift and ascended the
many stairs to his small apartment.

Here he rectified the sallowness of his complexion, which was due, not
to outraged nature, but to the arts of make-up. His dilated pupils (a
phenomenon traceable to drops of belladonna) he was compelled to suffer
for the present; but since their condition tended temporarily to impair
his sight, he determined to remain in his room until the time for the
appointment with Gianapolis.

"So!" he muttered--"we have branches in Europe, Asia, Africa and
America! Eh, bien! to find all those would occupy five hundred
detectives for a whole year. I have a better plan: crush the spider and
the winds of heaven will disperse his web!"

XXIX

M. MAX OF LONDON AND M. MAX OF PARIS

He seated himself in a cane armchair and, whilst the facts were fresh in
his memory, made elaborate notes upon the recent conversation with the
Greek. He had achieved almost more than he could have hoped for; but,
knowing something of the elaborate organization of the opium group, he
recognized that he owed some part of his information to the sense
of security which this admirably conducted machine inspired in its
mechanics. The introduction from Sir Brian Malpas had worked wonders,
without doubt; and his own intimate knowledge of the establishment
adjoining the Boulevard Beaumarchais, far from arousing the suspicions
of Gianapolis, had evidently strengthened the latter's conviction that
he had to deal with a confirmed opium slave.

The French detective congratulated himself upon the completeness of his
Paris operation. It was evident that the French police had succeeded in
suppressing all communication between the detained members of the Rue
St. Claude den and the head office--which he shrewdly suspected to be
situated in London. So confident were the