A crossing above the embassy’s building drew him back over the avenue and down through the low houses of a side street. He found a passage that passed parallel to the brick barrier which fenced in the ambassador’s grounds. He estimated the height of this wall as he
hurried by it. He turned the corner, and bounded the building as he glided out into the avenue and retraced his steps toward the hotel. He now had a plan of the project. It looked like clear sailing in the night to come.
A back glance, as he lighted a cigarette by striking the match upon a stone, showed a figure descending the embassy’s steps and limping in his direction. He waited and dragged at the cigarette. The man who passed was English. He had been through the war.
“I say,� said Fay, hurrying after the cripple. “Would you mind putting a chap straight? Is that the Hôtel de Ville?�
Fay pointed his cigarette at the embassy building as the soldier turned.
“Is it?� he repeated. “I hope I haven’t troubled you.�
“Blyme no!� answered the Tommy. “Hit’s the royal muckers wot do a man dirt, it his! Neutral embassy, wot? Wot satisfaction his there in that? Says I, to myself, I’ll look up my brother ’Arry who was lost at Wipers. Took by the Germans, ’e was! They told me to go to Switzerland, they did. ’Ow ham I goin’ to Switzerland on three bob, six?�
Fay fell into stride with the soldier, and walked at least five squares with him. He twisted the conversation around from ’Arry to a general outline of the floor plan of the embassy and the number of guards. He left his man near the British embassy. The two sovereigns he pressed into a protesting palm were well earned, although the cockney was unaware of it.
“Hope you find ’Arry,� said the cracksman, hurrying toward the hotel.
The information he had gained coincided, in the main, with the diagram which Saidee Isaacs had given to him. The additional details of the day guards, and the disposition of the embassy clerks, were sufficient to lay out the entire plan of action.