regretted.  The first man—­tall and powerful—­wore the splendid dress and black silk cap of a Chinese of high rank.  The man who followed him was Delora.  I knew him in a second, although he wore a white silk scarf around his neck, concealing the lower part of his face, and a silk hat pushed down almost over his eyes.  I saw his little nervous glance up and down the street, I saw him push past the commissionnaire as though in a hurry to gain the semi-obscurity of the car.  I stopped short upon the pavement, motionless for one brief and fatal moment.  Then I turned back and hastened to the side of the car.  I knocked at the window.

“Delora,” I said, “I must speak to you.”

The car had begun to move.  I wrenched at the handle, but I found it held on the inside with a grip which even I could not move.  I looked into the broad, expressionless face of the Chinaman, who, leaning forward, completely shielded the person of the man with whom I sought to speak.

“One moment,” I called out.  “I must speak with Mr. Delora.  I have a message for him.”

The car was going faster now.  I tried to jump on to the step, but the first time I missed it.  Then the window was suddenly let down.  The Chinaman’s arm flashed out and struck me on the chest, so that I was forced to relinquish my grasp of the handle.  I reeled back, preserving my balance only by a desperate effort.  Before I could start in pursuit, the car had turned into the more crowded thoroughfare, and when I reached the spot where it had disappeared a few seconds later, it was lost amongst the stream of vehicles.

I went back to the restaurant.  It was like a hundred others of its class—­stuffy, smelly, reminiscent of the poorer business quarters of a foreign city.  A waiter in a greasy dress-suit flicked some crumbs from a vacant table and motioned me to sit down.  I ordered a Fin Champagne, and put half-a-crown into his hand.

“Tell me,” I said, “five minutes ago a Chinaman and another man were here.”

The man laid the half-crown down on the table.  His manner had undergone a complete change.

“Perhaps so, sir,” he answered.  “We have been busy to-night.  I noticed nobody.”

I called the proprietor to me—­a little pale-faced man with a black moustache, who had been hovering in the background.  He hastened to my side, smiling and bowing.  This time I did not ask him a direct question.

“I am interested in the restaurants of this quarter,” I said.  “Some one has told me that your dinner is marvellous!”

He smiled a little suspiciously.  The word was perhaps unfortunate!

“I am bringing some friends to try it very soon,” I said.

The waiter brought my Fin Champagne.  I drank it and ordered a cigar.

“You have all sorts of people here,” I remarked.  “I noticed a Chinaman—­he was very much like the Chinese ambassador, by the bye—­leaving as I came in.”