The Washington herald., 1914-01-11

late color; across the upper half a
!. muslin curtain was drawn which badly
t needed washing 1t was to the build
| ing to which this window belonged
l that the speaker referred with mo-
! ton of his hand. Sans? The ginger
4 haired man had advised the sallow-
| faced alien to meet him at Sans at 10
| o'clock. Could this be the Sans to
, which he had referred? Tie pair in
front passed through swing door. l
hesitated. l saw two constables ad-
vancing toward me. / addressed them.
II "Can you tell me what that place
is?"
j That's Sam's," said one.
| "Are ladies admitted.'
u Ladies? Well, l don't know about
Il ladies-it depends upon what you call
!. ladies. Chaps take their wives and
!. sweethearts, and plenty of women
[ respectable women-go in there by
themselves; but as for ladies-well,
begging your pardon, don't suppose
many of Sans lady customers. pay
quite so much for their frocks as ]
dare say you do"
Il That night / paid visit to Sans.
The compelling cause was the little
scene which / had witnessed between
those two men. If they would be there
i, | felt that / must be; that / had to be
there, if only to see if they were. l
had an intuition that if that meeting
did take place, condolences might be
exchanged which the police might con-
slider it extremely desirable that they
should share.
1t was about twenty minutes to 10
when l arrived at Sans. l passed the
place four or five times before i actu-
ally entered.
When l was in / wondered why /
had hesitated as to entering. Ii seemed
quite respectable and fairly clean; and
some of the customers, both male and
female, were of better class than l
had expected from what the policeman
said.
The apartment into which one came
after passing the doors was a good
large one. l dare say there were be-
tween twenty and thirty handicapped
tables, some of them quite large ones.
At nearly all of them people were
seated; trade was brisk, and there was
babel of voices. l took my seat at
table at which there were already a
couple seated. Most of the people
] seemed to be drinking coffee. l or
p, dered a cup. As it was being brought
l looked carefully round; the whole
| place was visible from where | sat; it
was certain that neither of the men was
! there l glanced at the clock. 1T
wanted four or FIVE minutes to 10. II
slipped my coffee when it came, and
found it surprisingly good.
What the people around were talking
about | had not a notion; watching
their lips told me nothing. l had a
| feeling that more than one, language
was being spoken. If there were a
dozen, they were all equally unknown
| to me.
! The minutes passed. 1t was just on
10 o'clock when the swing door opened
and the man with the ginger hair
looked in. He was probably the only
| Englishman there. He glanced round.
Not seeing the person he sought, he
came farther in and searched more
minutely. He glanced at the clock,
hesitated, then took seat at a table
I near the door. He ordered cup of
coffee from the waiter. When it came
he began to swallow it in little gulps.
! glancing every moment at the clock.
The minute hand marked ten minutes
past. He emptied his cup and rose to
/ his feet, muttering something to him
self. He might as we'll have shouted
at the top of his voice; it could not
have been more audible to me.
I'll pay him. Those were the
three words he muttered. Then he
moved as if to go, and as he did so the
sallow-faced man came in.
In the white glare of the electric |
light he seemed sallower than ever.
When he saw the ginger-haired man
he held himself straighter, as if he had
stiffened; as in the morning, a look
came into his eyes which was half
rage, half terror. No greetings were
exchanged. The newcomer placed him
self on a, vacant chair. The ginger
haired man sat down on the opposite |
side of the table From where l was
could see them perfectly. Then the
ginger-haired man said:
Another half minute and you'd have |
been too late
The sallow man, resting his arms on
the table, seemed to consider the |
| others face. Then he. spoke in what /
was no doubt whisper, which only !
reached the ears of the man whom he |
addressed
What do you think to gain by going
to the police?"
They offer reward, don't they?"
Il sect is like that-it is the |
money you are after; SOL"
you take care what you're saying |
you keep a gag on that tongue of |
yours or you'll be sorry"
''You continually threaten. If it was
I A. a