"I am quite sure of that," said Browne, holding out his hand.
The captain took it, and, when he had shaken it as if he would dislocate it at the shoulder, bade his employer good-bye and left the room.
"So much for breaking the news to Mason," said Browne to himself, when the door had closed behind the skipper. "Now I must see Jimmy Foote, and arrange it with him."
He glanced at his watch, and found that it wanted only a few minutes to twelve o'clock. Ringing the bell, he bade the footman telephone to the Monolith Club, and inquire whether Mr. Foote were there; and if he were not, whether they could tell him where it would be possible to find him. The man disappeared upon his errand, to return in a few moments with the information that Mr. Foote had just arrived at the club in question.
"In that case," said Browne, "beg the servants to tell him that I will be there in ten minutes, and that I want to see him on most important business. Ask him not to leave until I come down."
The appointment having been duly made, he ordered his cab and set off in it for the rendezvous in question. On reaching the club—the same in which he had seen Jimmy on that eventful night, when he had discovered that Katherine was in London—Browne found his friend engaged in the billiard-room, playing a hundred up with a young gentleman, whose only claim to notoriety existed in the fact, that at the time he was dissipating his second enormous fortune at the rate of more than a thousand a week.
"Glad indeed to see you, old man," said Jimmy, as Browne entered the room. "I thought you were going to remain in Paris for some time longer. When did you get back?"
"Last night," said Browne. "I came over with Maas."
"With Maas?" cried Jimmy, in surprise. "Somebody said yesterday that he was not due to return for another month or more. But you telephoned that you wanted to see me, did you not? If it is anything important, I am sure Billy here won't mind my throwing up the game. He hasn't a ghost of a chance of winning, so it will be a new experience for him not to have to pay up."
Browne, however, protested that he could very well wait until they had finished their game. In the meantime he would smoke a cigar and watch them. This he did, and as soon as the competition was at an end and Jimmy had put on his coat, he drew him from the room.