“I had to try to earn my own living,” Denby explained, “and diplomacy doesn’t pay much at first even if you have the luck to get an appointment.”

Monty looked at him shrewdly. He saw a tall, well set up man who had every appearance of affluence.

“You’ve done pretty well for yourself.”

Denby smiled, “The age demands that a man put up a good appearance. A financier like you ought not to be deceived.”

Monty leaned over the table. “Steve, old man,” he said, a trifle nervously, “I don’t want to butt in on your private affairs, but if you ever want any money you’ll offend me if you don’t let me know. I’ve too much and that’s a fact. Except for putting a bit on Michael’s horses when they run and a bit of a flutter occasionally at Monte Carlo I don’t get rid of much of it. I’ve got heaps. Do you want any?”

“Monty,” the other man said quietly, “you haven’t altered. You are still the same generous boy I remember and it’s good for a man like me to know that. I don’t need any money, but if ever I do I’ll come to you.”

Monty sighed with relief. His old idol was not hard up and he had not been offended at the suggestion. It was a good world and he was happy.

“Steve,” he asked presently, “what did you mean about having enemies and being in danger? That was a joke, wasn’t it?”

“We most of us have enemies,” Steven said lightly, “and we are all in danger. For all you know ptomaines are gathering their forces inside you even now.”

“You didn’t mean that,” Monty said positively. “You were serious. What enemies?”

“Enemies I have made in the course of my work,” the other returned.

“Well, what work is it?” Monty queried. It was odd, he thought, that Denby would not let him into so harmless a secret as the nature of his work. He felt an unusual spirit of persistence rising within him. “What work?” he repeated.

Denby shrugged his shoulders. “You might call it a little irregular,” he said in a lowered voice. “You represent high finance. Your father is one of the big men in American affairs. You probably have his set views on things. I don’t want to shock you, Monty.”

“Shock be damned!” cried Monty in an aggrieved voice. “I’m tired of having to accommodate myself to other people’s views.”

Denby looked at him with mock wonder.

“Monty in revolt at the established order of things is a most remarkable phenomenon. Have you a pirate in your family tree that you sigh for sudden change and a life on the ocean wave?”

Monty laughed. “I don’t want to do anything like that but I’m tired of a life that is always the same. You’ve enemies. I don’t believe I’ve one. I’d like to have an enemy, Steve. I’d like to feel I was in danger; it would be a change after being wrapped in wool all my life. You’ve probably seen the world in a way I never shall. I’ve been on a personally conducted tour, which isn’t the same thing.”

“Not by a long shot,” Steven Denby agreed. “But,” he added, “why should you want to take the sort of risks that I have had to take, when there’s no need? I have been in danger pretty often, Monty, and I shall again. Why? Because I have my living to make and that way suits me best. You notice I am sitting with my back to the wall so that none can come behind me. I do that because two revengeful gentlemen have sworn bloodthirsty oaths to relieve my soul of its body.”

Monty tingled with a certain pleasurable apprehension which had never before visited him. He was experiencing in real life what had only revealed itself before in novels or on the stage.

“What are they like?” he demanded in a low voice, looking around.

“Disappointing, I’m afraid,” Steven answered. “You are looking for a tall man with a livid scar running from temple to chin and a look before which even a waiter would blanch. Both my men have mild expressions and wouldn’t attract a second glance, but they’ll either get me or I’ll get them.”

“Steve!” Monty cried. “What did they do?”

Denby made a careless gesture. “It was over a money matter,” he explained.

Monty thought for a moment in silence. Never had his conventional lot seemed less attractive to him. He approached the subject again as do timid men who fearfully hang on the outskirts of a street fight, unwilling to miss what they have not the heart to enjoy.

“I wish some excitement like that would come my way,” he sighed.

“Excitement? Go to Monte and break the bank. Become the Jaggers of your country.”

“There’s no danger in that,” Monty answered almost peevishly.

“Nor of it,” laughed his friend.

“That’s just the way it always is,” Monty complained. “Other fellows have all the fun and I just hear about it.”

Denby looked at him shrewdly and then leaned across the table.

“So you want some fun?” he queried.

“I do,” the other said firmly.

“Do you think you’ve got the nerve?” Steven demanded.

Monty hesitated. “I don’t want to be killed,” he admitted. “What is it?”

“I didn’t tell you how I made a living, but I hinted my ways were a bit irregular. What I have to propose is also a trifle out of the usual. The law and the equator are both imaginary lines, Monty, and I’m afraid my little expedition may get off the line. I suppose you don’t want to hear any more, do you?”

Monty’s eyes were shining with excitement. “I’m going to hear everything you’ve got to say,” he asserted.

“It means I’ve got to put myself in your power in a way,” Denby said hesitatingly, “but I’ll take a chance because you’re the kind of man who can keep things secret.”

“I am,” Monty said fervently. “Just you try me out, Steve!”

“It has to do with a string of pearls,” Denby explained, “and I’m afraid I shall disappoint you when I tell you I’m proposing to pay for them just as any one else might do.”

“Oh!” said Monty. “Is that all?”

“When I buy these pearls, as you will see me do, with Bank of France notes, they belong to me, don’t they?”

“Sure they do,” Monty exclaimed. “They are yours to do as you like with.”

“That’s exactly how I feel about it,” Denby said. “It happens to be my particular wish to take those pearls back to my native land.”

“Then for heaven’s sake do it,” Monty advised. “What’s hindering you?”

“A number of officious prying hirelings called customs officials. They admit that the pearls aren’t improved by the voyage, yet they want me to pay a duty of twenty per cent. if I take them home with me.”

“So you’re going to smuggle ’em,” Monty cried. “That’s a cinch!”

“Is it?” Denby returned slowly. “It might have been in the past, but things aren’t what they were in the good old days. They’re sending even society women to jail now as well as fining them. The whole service from being a joke has become efficient. I tell you there’s risk in it, and believe me, Monty, I know.”

“Where would I come in?” the other asked.

“You’d come in on the profits,” Denby explained, “and you’d be a help as well.”

“Profits?” Monty queried. “What profits?”

Denby laughed. “You simple child of finance, do you think I’m buying a million-franc necklace to wear about my own fair neck? I can sell it at a fifty thousand dollar profit in the easiest sort of way. There are avenues by which I can get in touch with the right sort of buyers without any risk. My only difficulty is getting the thing through the customs. It’s up to you to get your little excitement if you’re game.”

Monty shut his eyes and felt as one does who is about to plunge for the first swim of the season into icy water. It was one thing to talk about danger in the abstract and another to have it suddenly offered him.

Steven had talked calmly about men who wanted to part his soul from his body as though such things were in no way out of the ordinary. Suppose these desperate beings assumed Montague Vaughan to be leagued with Steven Denby and as such worthy of summary execution! But he put aside these fears and turned to his old friend.

“I’m game,” he said, “but I’m not in this for the profits.” Now he was once committed to it, his spirits began to rise. “What about the danger?” he asked.

“There may be none at all,” the other admitted. “If there is it may be slight. If by any chance it is known to certain crooks that I have it with me there may be an attempt to get it. Naturally they won’t ask me pleasantly to hand it over, they’ll take it by force. That’s one danger. Then I may be trailed by the customs people, who could be warned through secret channels that I have it and am purposing to smuggle it in.”

“But what can I do?” Monty asked. He was anxious to help but saw little opportunity.

“You can tell me if any people follow me persistently while we’re together in Paris or whether the same man happens to sit next to me at cafés or any shows we take in.” He paused a moment, “By Jove, Monty, this means I shall have to book a passage on the Mauretania!”

“That’s the best part of it,” Monty cried.

“But Mrs. Harrington,” Denby said. “She might not like it.”

“Alice can’t choose a passenger list,” Monty exclaimed; “and she’ll be glad to have any old friend of mine.”

“That’s a thing I want to warn you of,” the other man said. “I don’t want you to give away too many particulars about me. Don’t persist in that fable about my saving your life. Know me just enough to vouch to her that I’m house-broken but don’t get to the point where we have to discuss common friends. I have my reasons, Monty, which I’ll explain later on. I don’t court publicity this trip and I don’t want any reporter to jump aboard at Quarantine and get interested in me.”

“I see,” cried the sapient Monty and felt he was plunging at last into dark doings and mysterious depths. “But how am I to warn you if you’re followed? I shall be with you and we ought not to let on that we know.” He felt in that moment the hours he had spent with detective novels had been time well spent.

“We must devise something,” Denby agreed, “and something simple.” He meditated for a moment. “Here’s an idea. If you should think I’m being followed or you want me to understand that something unusual is up, just say without any excitement, ‘Will you have a cigarette, Dick?’”

“But why ‘Dick,’” Monty cried, “when you’re Steve!”

“For that very reason,” Denby explained. “If you said Steve merely I shouldn’t notice it, but if you say Dick I shall be on the qui vive at once.”

“Great idea!” cried his fellow conspirator enthusiastically. “When do you buy them?”

“I’ve an appointment at Cartier’s at eleven. Want to come?”

“You bet I do,” Monty asserted, “I’m going through with it from start to finish.”

He looked at his friend a little anxiously. “What is the worst sort of a finish we might expect if the luck ran against us?”

“As you won’t come in on the profits, you shan’t take any risks,” Denby said. “If you agree to help me as we suggested that’s all I require of you. In case I should not get by, you can explain me away as a passing acquaintance merely. Don’t kick against the umpire’s decision,” he commanded. “If they halved the sentence because two were in it I might claim your help all the way, but they’d probably double it for conspiracy, so you’d be a handicap. You’ll get a run for your money, Monty, all right.”

“I’m not so sure,” said Monty doubtfully.

Denby fell into the bantering style the other knew so well. “There’s one thing I’ll warn you about,” he said. “If a very beautiful young woman makes your acquaintance on board, by accident of course, don’t tell her what life seems to you as is your custom. She may be an agent of the Russian secret police with an assignment to take you to Siberia. She may force you to marry her at a pistol’s point and cost your worthy progenitor a million. Be careful, Monty. You’re in a wicked world and you’ve a sinful lot of money, and these big ships attract all that is brightest and best in the criminal’s Who’s Who.”

Monty shivered a bit. “I never thought of that,” he said innocently.

“Then you’d better begin now,” his mentor suggested, “and have for once a voyage where you won’t be bored.”

He glanced at the clock. “It’s later than I thought and I have to be up early. I’ll walk to your hotel.”

During the short walk Monty glanced apprehensively over his shoulder a score of times. Out of the shadows it seemed to him that mysterious men stared evilly and banded themselves together until a procession followed the two Americans. But Denby paid no sort of attention to these problematic followers.

“Wait till I’ve got the pearls on me,” he whispered mischievously. “Then you’ll see some fun.”