"All that I have to say," Selingman went on, "is not yet said. This
opportunity of meeting you is too precious to be wasted. Come. As we walk
there are certain questions I wish to put to you."

They passed within a few feet of where Norgate was lying. He closed his
eyes and held his breath. It was not until their figures were almost
specks in the distance that he rose cautiously to his feet. He made his
way back to the club-house by another angle, gained his taxicab
unobserved, and drove back to Ostend.

* * * * *

Towards evening Norgate strolled into one of the cosmopolitan bars at the
back of the Casino. The first person he saw as he handed over his hat to
a waiter, was Selingman, spread out upon a cushioned seat with a young
lady upon either side of him. He at once summoned Norgate to his table.

"An _apéritif_," he insisted. "Come, you must not refuse me. In two hours
we start. We tear ourselves away from this wonderful atmosphere. In
atmosphere, mademoiselle," he added, bowing to the right and the left,
"all is included."

"It is not," Norgate admitted, "an invitation to be disregarded. On the
other hand, I have already an appetite."

Selingman thundered out an order.

"Here," he remarked, "we dwell for a few brief moments in Bohemia. I do
not introduce you. You sit down and join us. You are one of us. That you
speak only English counts for nothing. Mademoiselle Alice here is