"You know the place?"
"Very well. It has an extraordinary reputation. I am sorry to say it,
Duncombe, but it is a very bad place for your friend to have disappeared
from."
"Why?"
"In the first place it is the resort of a good many of the most
dangerous people in Europe--people who play the game through to the end.
It is a perfect hot-bed of political intrigue, and it is under police
protection."
"Police protection! A place like that!" Duncombe exclaimed.
"Not as you and I understand it, perhaps," Spencer explained. "There is
no Scotland Yard extending a protecting arm over the place, and that
sort of thing. But the place is haunted by spies, and there are
intrigues carried on there in which the secret service police often take
a hand. In return it is generally very hard to get to the bottom of any
disappearance or even robbery there through the usual channels. To the
casual visitor, and of course it attracts thousands from its reputation,
it presents no more dangers perhaps than the ordinary night cafe of its
sort. But I could think of a dozen men in Paris to-day, who, if they
entered it, I honestly believe would never be seen again.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67