Part 35 (2/2)
”Oh, I say!” Wertheimer protested amiably--”don't be s.h.i.+rty, old top.
Give a chap a chance. Besides, I have a bit of news from Antwerp that I guarantee will interest you.”
”Antwerp?” Lanyard iterated, mystified.
”Antwerp, where the s.h.i.+ps sail from,” Wertheimer laughed: ”not Amsterdam, where the diamonds flock together, as you may know.”
”I don't follow you, I'm afraid.”
”I shan't elucidate until we're under cover.”
”All right. Where shall I take you?”
”Any quiet cafe will do. You must know one--”
”Thanks--no,” said Lanyard dryly. ”If I must confabulate with gentlemen of your kidney, I prefer to keep it dark. Even dressed as I am, I might be recognized, you know.”
But it was evident that Wertheimer didn't mean to permit himself to be ruffled.
”Then will my modest diggings do?” he suggested pleasantly. ”I've taken a suite in the rue Vernet, just back of the Hotel Astoria, where we can be as private as you please, if you've no objection.”
”None whatever.”
Wertheimer gave him the number and replaced the window....
His rooms in the rue Vernet proved to be a small ground-floor apartment with private entrance to the street.
”Took the tip from you,” he told Lanyard as he unlocked the door. ”I daresay you'd be glad to get back to that rez-de-chaussee of yours.
Ripping place, that.... By the way--judging from your apparently robust state of health, you haven't been trying to live at home of late.”
”Indeed?”
”Indeed yes, monsieur! If I may presume to advise--I'd pull wide of the rue Roget for a while--for as long, at least, as you remain in your present intractable temper.”
”Daresay you're right,” Lanyard a.s.sented carelessly, following, as Wertheimer turned up the lights, into a modest salon cosily furnished.
”You live here alone, I understand?”
”Quite: make yourself perfectly at ease; n.o.body can hear us. And,” the Englishman added with a laugh, ”do forget your pistol, Mr. Lanyard. I'm not Popinot, nor is this Troyon's.”
”Still,” Lanyard countered, ”you've just been dining with Bannon.”
Wertheimer laughed easily. ”Had me there!” he admitted, unabashed. ”I take it you know a bit more about the Old Man than you did a week ago?”
”Perhaps.”
”But sit down: take that chair there, which commands both doors, if you don't trust me.”
”Do you think I ought to?”
<script>