"Have you confided in him?"
"Lord, no! I don't trust any of them. Say! The more I think about that letter, the more I think it's a bluff."
"You can't afford to ignore it."
"Of course not. I'll plant O'Connell and another man outside on Thursday night and see if anything suspicious turns up, but I'll take my dinner elsewhere."
The two men had finished their meal when Bernie Dreux strolled in and took the seat which Maruffi had vacated.
"Well, how goes your detecting, Bernie?" Norvin inquired.
"Hist!" breathed the little man so sharply that his hearers started. He winked mysteriously and they saw that he was bursting with important tidings. "There's something doing!"
"What is it?" demanded the Chief. But Mr. Dreux answered nothing. Instead he lit a cigarette, and as he raised the match looked guardedly into a mirror behind Donnelly's chair.
"I'm glad you took this table," he began in a low voice. "I always sit where I can get a flash."
"A what?" queried the astonished Blake.