The performance was drawing to a close, the bars and foyer were crowded, and the chatter and laughter so loud that neither song nor music could be heard. Although we struggled backward and forward, and peered into the various bars, Grindlay could not discover the men for whom he was in search, neither could I find the Earl and his companions.
“I’m very much afraid they’ve left,” the detective said to me presently, when he had made a thorough investigation.
“What shall you do?”
“Oh, I know where I can find the first man, therefore the second; being in London, it will not be a very difficult matter to get scent of him again,” he answered lightly, adding, “But I haven’t seen your friend the Earl. He’s gone also, I suppose.”
“I believe so. I haven’t noticed him since we returned.”
“You said you knew that man who was with him,” he observed.
“The tall man,” I repeated. “You mean Markwick. Yes, I’ve met him once or twice. But I don’t know much of him.”
“Foreigner, isn’t he?”
“I don’t think so. If he is, he speaks English amazingly well.”
“Ah! I thought he had a foreign cast in his features,” he said, striking a vesta to relight his cigar. “I’ve seen him about town of late, and wondered who and what he was; that’s why I asked.”