"
"You anticipate trouble, then; danger, perhaps."
"Not necessarily, but it is as well to take precautions."
"Is there anything else?"
"Yes; I should like to bring my disguise and put it on here. In the
porter's lodge, a back office--anywhere."
The _attache_ promised to get the ambassador's permission, which was
accorded in due course, and that same afternoon Hyde entered the
Embassy a well-dressed English gentleman, and came out an evil-looking
ruffian, wearing the blue blouse and high silk cap of the working
classes. One sleeve of the blouse hung loose across his chest, as
though he had lost his arm, but his injured limb was safe underneath
the garment. His beard was trimmed close, and on either side of his
forehead were two great curls, plastered flat on the temple, after the
fashion so popular with French roughs.
In this attire he plunged into the lowest depths of the city.
Amongst the papers seized at the Maltese baker's in Kadikoi were
several that gave an address in Paris. This place was referred to
constantly as the headquarters of the organisation which supplied the
Russian enemy with intelligence, and at which a certain mysterious
person--the leading spirit evidently of the whole nefarious
company--was to be found.
"I'll find out all about him and his confederates before I'm many
hours older," said Hyde, confidently, as he presented himself at the
porter's lodge of a tall, six-storied house, of mean and forbidding
aspect, close to the Faubourg St.
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