To all intents and purposes, the men who killed the journalist were acting in concert with a Frenchman named Jean de Courtois, and their common object was to prevent a marriage arranged for last night.

Yet this same de Courtois was found gagged and bound in his room at the Central Hotel shortly before midnight.

Someone had maltreated him badly, and the wonder is he was not killed outright." Now, the roundsman, wedged close against the prisoner, felt the man give an almost unconscious and quite involuntary start when de Courtois was mentioned, and there could be no question that he was straining his ears to catch each syllable Curtis uttered.
Nudging the latter, McCulloch said: "So it was a near thing that two weddings were not interfered with last night, sir ?" "No, not two, only one.

I married the lady." "You did!" The policeman's undoubted bewilderment was convincingly genuine, but, despite his surprise, he was alert to catch the slightest move or sign of emotion on the part of the captive.
"Yes," said Curtis.

"I married her before half-past eight." "Then you must have possessed some knowledge of the parties mixed up in this business ?" "No, not in the sense you have in mind.