“Tell Le Bain I want to see him in his office,” he said to the door-man, and moved quickly among the tables and passed through a gray-and-gilt door. In less than a minute Le Bain entered.
“Joe,” Clifford began brusquely, without prelude. “I want the key to that private house of yours, and I want it damned quick.”
Le Bain tried to look blank. “What private house? Why, Bob, I don’t know—”
“Cut out the stalling!” interrupted Clifford. “It won’t do you any good—and I’ve no time to listen to it. I know all about that house. And you needn’t say the people who have it to-night have the only keys—I know you have a lot of duplicates for the convenience of members of a party that prefer not to go there in a group. So come across!”
“But, Bob, honest to God—”
“No time for your lies, Joe! Now, you listen to this if you care for your own health. The people there won’t know I got in with your consent, and you’ll not get in bad with them. That is, unless they are pulling something raw there—in which case I can testify that you assisted me. On the other hand, if you don’t come across I’ll have the Commissioner of Licenses revoke your license for Le Minuit within twenty-four hours, and you’ll find you’ll never be able to do business again in this town. Quick, now,—let’s have that key!”
Monsieur Le Bain, immigrant from somewhere in that part of France which lies below Fourteenth Street, slowly turned about and fumbled in a drawer of his desk. He was a long time about it, but when he finally turned there was a key in his long yellowish-white hands. Clifford took the key, but as he did so he caught the fading remnant of a crafty look in Le Bain’s shifty eyes.
“Boys,” he said sharply, “you stick right here and entertain this gentleman for two hours. He can do anything he likes except talk to people—or talk into that telephone.”
Clifford caught the twitch in Le Bain’s face, and he knew he had forestalled the other’s intent to telephone warning to the brief tenants of the house.
Clifford was down in the street two minutes after he had entered Le Minuit. Here he found Uncle George, waiting.