The two negro attendants, who were hoping for some more exciting experience, were squatted on the floor playing pinochle, and the strenuous efforts of Lord Valletort to arouse the slumberer were quite useless.

But--and that was a vital thing--he had seen de Courtois, and knew beyond doubt that he was alive, and seemingly in good health, or, at any rate, physically uninjured.
"The man has been drugged," said the lawyer, watching the Earl's unavailing attempt to awaken the Frenchman.

"Is, by any chance, Mr.
Curtis's room situated near this one ?" "It is just overhead," said the clerk.
"Dear me!" Schmidt looked up at the ceiling as though his eyes might discern a trap-door.

"Is Mr.Curtis there now ?" "No, sir." "Where is he ?" "He went out with a Mr.Devar." "Oh! Do you know where he went to ?" Krantz was tempted to prevaricate, but Schmidt was a power in the Central Hotel.
"I believe, sir, he is at the Plaza." "A large hotel, near Central Park, is it not ?" demanded the Earl eagerly.
"My lord, pardon me." The lawyer was no believer in letting all the world into your secrets, and the clerk's manner showed that he was far from well posted in certain elements of the affair.
Valletort was for rushing forthwith off in a taxi to the Plaza; but Schmidt vetoed the notion.

He shared the Earl's conviction that Hermione would be discovered there, but, before meeting her, he wanted to obtain a great many particulars the lack of which in his client's earlier story his legal acumen had already scented.
So he drew the impatient nobleman into a quiet corner of the restaurant, and extracted from his unwilling lips certain details as to Count Vassilan and the marriage project which had not been forthcoming before.
Krantz seized the opportunity to call up Steingall on the telephone and told him something, not all, of what had occurred.