The Double Four. E. Phillips Oppenheim

his shoulders.

      "Why not the pleasure of this few minutes' conversation with you?" he asked.

      The baron carefully selected a cigar and lit it.

      "That," he said, "goes well, but there are other things."

      "As, for instance?"

      De Grost leaned back in his chair and watched the smoke of his cigar curl upwards.

      "One talks too much," he remarked. "Before the cards are upon the table it is not wise."

      They chatted upon various matters. De Grost himself seemed in no hurry to depart, nor did his companion show any signs of impatience. It was not until the two people whose entrance had had such a remarkable effect upon Bernadine, rose to leave, that the mask was for a moment lifted. De Grost had called for his bill and paid it. The two men strolled out together.

      "Baron," Bernadine said suavely, linking his arm through the other man's as they passed into the foyer, "there are times when candour even amongst enemies becomes an admirable quality."

      "Those times, I imagine," de Grost answered grimly, "are rare. Besides, who is to tell the real thing from the false?"

      "You do less than justice to your perceptions, my friend," Bernadine declared, smiling.

      De Grost merely shrugged his shoulders. Bernadine persisted.

      "Come," he continued, "since you doubt me, let me be the first to give you a proof that on this occasion, at any rate, I am candour itself. You had a purpose in lunching at the Savoy to-day. That purpose I have discovered by accident. We are both interested in those people."

      The Baron de Grost shook his head slowly.

      "Really——" he began.

      "Let me finish," Bernadine insisted. "Perhaps when you have heard all that I have to say you may change your attitude. We are interested in the same people, but in different ways. If we both move from opposite directions our friend will vanish. He is clever enough at disappearing, as he has proved before. We do not want the same thing from him, I am convinced of that. Let us move together and make sure that he does not evade us."