I fancy, therefore, that my general appearance and reception of him somewhat astonished my early visitor.

He seemed, indeed, to take my nonchalance almost as an affront, and he proceeded at once to try and disturb it.
"Monsieur was expecting, perhaps, another sort of visitor ?" he asked.
I shook my head.
"I really hadn't thought about it," I said.

"After what you told me last night I have been feeling quite comfortable." "Do you know that it is doubtful whether Monsieur Tapilow will live ?" Louis asked.
"It was the just payment of a just debt," I answered.
"The law," he objected, "does not permit such adjustments." "The law," I answered, "can do what it pleases with me." Louis regarded me steadily for a moment or two, and I fancied that there was something of that admiration in his gaze which a cautious man sometimes feels for the foolhardy.
"Monsieur has slept well ?" he asked.
"Excellently," I answered.
He glanced at the watch which he had taken from his waistcoat pocket.
"In twenty minutes," he announced, "we must be at the Cafe Normandy." I raised my eyebrows.
"Indeed!" I said dryly.

"I don't exactly follow you." Louis shrugged his shoulders.
"Monsieur," he said, "it is no time, this, for the choice of words.
There is a man who lies very near to death up there in the Cafe des Deux Epingles, and it must be decided within the next few hours what is to be done with him." "I am not sure that I understand, Louis," I said, lighting a cigarette.
"You will understand at the Cafe Normandy in half an hour's time," Louis answered.

"In the meanwhile, have you a servant?
If not, summon the _valet de chambre_.