Will you pipe the diamonds and rubies?
There's your room rents, monseer." The day clerk, who considered himself a judge, was of the opinion that there were two or three thousand dollars tied up in the stones.

It was a police affair.

Some ambassador had been robbed, and the Britisher and the Greek or Bulgarian were mixed up in it.

Loot.
"I thought the war was over," said the night clerk.
"The shootin' is over, that's all," said the captain of the bellboys, sagely.
What had happened in Room 212?
A duel of wits rather than of physical contact.

Hawksley realized instantly that here was the crucial moment.
Caught and overpowered, he was lost.