were talking to a waitress. Having taken a good look at Van Koon, he
turned his attention to Van Koon's companion, a little, dapper man,
smartly dressed in bright blue serge, and finished off with great care in
all his appointments. He seemed to be approaching middle age; there were
faint traces of grey in his pointed beard and upward-twisted moustaches;
he carried his years, however, in very jaunty fashion, and his white
Homburg hat, ornamented with a blue ribbon, was set at a rakish angle on
the side of his close-cropped head. In his right eye he wore a
gold-rimmed monocle; just then he was bringing it to bear an the waitress
who stood between himself and his companion.

"You don't know the other man, either of you?" asked the chief suddenly.

Allerdyke shook his head, but Appleyard nodded.

"I know that chap by sight," he said. "I've seen him in the City--about
Threadneedle Street--two or three times of late. He's always very smartly
dressed--I took him for a foreigner of some sort."

The chief turned to his coffee.

"Well--never mind him," he said. "Pay no attention--so long as that man
is Van Koon, I'll watch him quietly. But you may be sure he has come here
on the same business that has brought us here. I--"

Allerdyke, whose sharp eyes were perpetually moving round the crowded
enclosure and the little groups which mingled outside it, suddenly nudged
the chief's elbow.

"Miss Slade!" he whispered. "And--Rayner!"