I am rich enough to outbid the others who exact their silence." "You must be rich enough to buy their lives then," Spencer answered gravely, "for if you do succeed in tempting any one to betray the inner happenings of that place on which the seal of silence has been put, you will hear of them in the Morgue before a fortnight has passed." "They must take their risk," Duncombe said coldly.

"I am going to stuff my pockets with money to-night, and I shall bid high.

I shall leave word at the hotel where I am going.

If anything happens to me there--well, I don't think the Cafe Montmartre will flourish afterwards." "Duncombe," his friend said gravely, "nothing will happen to you at the Cafe Montmartre.

Nothing ever does happen to any one there.