Part 78 (1/2)
”You're so clever! Where is that Yellow Devil now?”
”Pouf!” giggled Fifi. ”On its way to Berlin, _pardie_!”
”That's easy to say. Tell me something else more expensive.”
Nini said, surprised:
”What we know is free to Prince Erlik's friend. Did you think we sell to Russians?”
”I don't know anything about you or where you get your information,”
said Neeland. ”I suppose you're in the Secret Service of the Russian Government.”
”_Mon ami_, Nilan,” said Fifi, smiling, ”we should feel lonely _outside_ the Secret Service. Few in Europe are outside--few in the world, fewer in the half-world. As for us Tziganes, who belong to neither, the business of everybody becomes our secret to sell for a silver piece--but _not_ to Russians in the moment of peril!... Nor to their comrades.... What do you desire to know, _comrade_?”
”Anything,” he said simply, ”that might help me to regain what I have lost.”
”And what do you suppose!” exclaimed Fifi, opening her magnificent black eyes very wide. ”Did you imagine that n.o.body was paying any attention to what happened in the rue Soleil d'Or this noon?”
Nini laughed.
”The word flew as fast as the robber's taxicab. How many thousand secret friends to the Triple Entente do you suppose knew of it half an hour after it happened? From the Trocadero to Montparna.s.se, from the Point du Jour to Charenton, from the Bois to the Bievre, the word flew. Every taxicab, omnibus, _sapin_, every _bateau-mouche_, every train that left any terminal was watched.
”Five emba.s.sies and legations were instantly under redoubled surveillance; hundreds of cafes, bars, restaurants, _hotels_; all the theatres, gardens, cabarets, _bra.s.series_.
”Your pigs of Apaches are not neglected, _va_! But, to my idea, they got out of Paris before we watchers knew of the affair at all--in an automobile, perhaps--perhaps by rail. G.o.d knows,” said the girl, looking absently at the dancing which had begun again. ”But if we ever lay our eyes on Minna Minti, we wear toys in our garters which will certainly persuade her to take a little stroll with us.”
After a silence, Neeland said:
”Is Minna Minti then so well known?”
”Not at the Opera Comique,” replied Fifi with a shrug, ”but _since_ then.”
”An _artiste_, that woman!” added Nini. ”Why deny it? It appears that she has twisted more than one red b.u.t.ton out of a broadcloth coat.”
”She'll get the Seraglio medal for this day's work,” said Fifi.
”Or the _croix-de-fer_,” added Nini. ”Ah, _zut_! She annoys me.”
”Did you ever hear of a place called the Cafe des Bulgars?” asked Neeland, carelessly.
”Yes.”
”What sort of place is it?”
”Like any other.”
”Quite respectable?”