Searching questions were fired at them, but Steingall, who knew how to use the press for his own ends, countered by asking genially: "In your hunt for copy, have any of you boys come across Mr.John D.
Curtis ?" "The man who really saw the riot?
I guess not.

We want him badly." An approving grin from his colleagues vouched for the speaker's accuracy.
"Who was killed, anyhow, Steingall ?" demanded the journalist who had answered the detective.
"We don't know, yet." "Does Curtis know ?" "He said he didn't, but I'll tell you something--I shan't be happy till I've had another chat with him." "Can anyone say who 'John D.Curtis, of Pekin,' really is ?" went on the reporter.
"That is the man we are looking for.

If there are police officers present, I want them to understand that Curtis should be arrested at sight." Everyone turned at the sound of the authoritative English voice which had intervened so unexpectedly in the conclave.

They saw an elderly man, well dressed, and bearing the unmistakable tokens of good social standing.

With him was a foreigner, a most truculent looking person, whose collar, shirt, and waistcoat carried other signs, quite as obvious, but curiously ominous in view of the cause of this gathering in the hall of the hotel.
"May I ask who you are, sir ?" said Steingall.
"I am the Earl of Valletort," said the stranger, "and this is Count Ladislas Vassilan." "Ah! Count Vassilan is not an Englishman ?" "No, but----" "Is he, by any chance, a Hungarian ?" "Count Vassilan is a Hungarian prince.