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 _aperitif_," he insisted.

"Come, you must not refuse me.