Fire-Tongue

able sights of London and doubtless would have received suitable mention in the "Blue Guide" had the room been accessible to the general public. It was, on the contrary, accessible only to the pe

He had seen the face of the occupant and had recognized it even from that elevation. He was interested; and since only unusual things aroused any semblance of interest in the man who now stood at the window, one might have surmised

k hair, a sallow complexion, and the features of a Sioux. A long black cigar protruded aggressively from the left corner of his mouth. His hands were locked behind him and his large and quite expressionless blue eyes stared straight a

e a rap a

id the t

d close to the skull. His fresh-coloured face was quite as expressionless as that of his master; his glan

tall man, looking

terval rapped again upon the door, opened it, and stan

Paul Harley, eagerly alert, there was something essentially British. Nicol Brinn, without being typical, was nevertheless distinctly a product of the United States. Yet, despite the stoic mask wo

ward impulsively, hand outstretched. "Mr. Brinn," he said, "we have never met before, and it was good o

hand, seized that of Paul Harley in a tremendous grip, and almost instantly put his hand behind his back

d and who is impatient of delay. Mr. Brinn stooped to a coffee table which stood upon

miling. "The 'N. B. cocktail' has a reputation

the New York bartender, mixed the drinks. Paul Harley watched h

s," he said, "

aul Harley set his glass down and glanced about the singular apartment o

ur from the Pelews contemplated swooping upon the head of a huge tigress which glared with glassy eyes across the place at the snarling muzzle of a polar bear. Mycenaean vases and gold death masks stood upon the same shelf

tusks and Mexican skulls; a stone jar of water from the well of Zem-Zem, and an ivory crucifix which had belonged to Torquemada. A mat of human

suddenly, "that you are up

III) which the speaker had pushed across the coffee table in his direction, stared

you were followed. Somebo

llowed because I have entered upon the biggest case of my career." He paused and smiled in a very grim fashi

l Brinn. "These are dull days. It's mea

hile. His expression, as he did so, was an odd one. Two courses were

he theory upon which I am working is entirely wrong, then, supposing that you are in a position to

oom and locked the door. "I don't doubt Hoskins's honesty," he explained, reading the in

racter. But Nicol Brinn took his cheroot between his fingers, quickly placed a cone of ash in a little silver tray (the

crook world," he said. "He knows it and he's

life in my hands. But from your answer to the question which I have come here to-night to

said Nic

cholar, these two faced each other; and despite the peaceful quiet of the apartment up to which as a soothing murmur stole t

," said Paul Harley. "It is this: