Isaac Isidore was lunching at his chambers in his own simple way. A hard trying life like his, to say nothing of half his nights spent in society, called for a careful regime. Plain food and a total absence from intoxicants enabled the man to get through an enormous amount of work and pleasure.

He was glad to see Lawrence as usual. Had he not preferred the atmosphere of finance, Isidore would have made a fine novelist of the sensational order. His fine imagination enabled him to bring off so many of the surprises with which he constantly terrified his brother capitalists.

"Anything to do with the mystery?" he asked.

"I should say a great deal," Lawrence chuckled. "In the first place, I should like to hear something of the history of one Maitrank."

"You don\'t mean to say he\'s in it!" Isidore cried, grimly amused. "The cunningest fox in all Europe. Truly the Lalage is a wonderful woman! But I see our friend Dr. Bruce is burning to tell me a story. Pray go on."

Bruce proceeded to relate all that had happened the previous evening. Isidore shook with suppressed laughter, though he never spoke a word. The narrator quite failed himself to see the humorous side of the matter.

"What do you think of it?" Lawrence asked at length.

"I think that but for the pluck and courage of a girl friend Maitrank would have gone to his account before now," Isidore said more seriously. "I must confess that I find the mystery of it all exceedingly fascinating. Maitrank is not the kind of man who forgets and forgives in a moment. What on earth could have induced him to grow so friendly with that fellow Balmayne all at once?"

"That I leave you to guess," Bruce replied. "It is beyond me."

"But it is not in the least beyond me," Lawrence remarked coolly, as he reached for a cigarette. "To a certain extent I hold the key to the situation. Accident strengthens my hands, as it generally does in dealing with people of this kind. And I am going to make a powerful new ally in this new business. I need not ask you if you are personally acquainted with Maitrank, Isidore?"

"Oh, I know the man well enough," Isidore replied. "I will give you an introduction to him right enough. But you won\'t get much from that quarter."

Lawrence begged to differ. In the first place, he anticipated considerable entertainment. He was not selfish, he said, and had no desire to keep it to himself.

"You must have your comic relief to every drama," he said. "We haven\'t had much humour up to now, but that is coming. By the way, I hope your Continental friend is not subject to apoplexy?"

Lawrence chuckled to himself with the air of a man who has a joke which is too good for the world in general. Isidore was puzzled and interested.

"Tell you what," he exclaimed, "I\'ll try and get Maitrank on the telephone. He has a............