CHAPTER III
A MEETING OF MYSTERY
A RATHER attractive-looking, though over-dressed, young woman was dining in a second-rate chop-house in London. She was noticeable, not so much for her fine figure and coarsely beautiful face as for the size and appearance of her companion, a large, well-proportioned man in the mid-twenties, with such a tremendous beard that it gave him the appearance of hiding in ambush. He stood fully three inches over six feet. His shoulders were broad, his chest deep, and his hips narrow. His physique, his carriage, everything about him, suggested indubitably the trained athlete.
The two were in close conversation, a conversation that occasionally gave every evidence of bordering upon heated argument.
"I tell you," said the man, "that I do not see what we need of the others. Why should they share with us—why divide into six portions that which you and I might have alone?"
"It takes money to carry the plan through," she replied, "and neither you nor I have any money. They have it and they will back us with
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