“What does monsieur want?” again asked the waiter.
“I want to see the proprietor,” said Frank boldly, speaking in most excellent French. “It is important. Tell him that I must see him at once.”
The waiter bowed low, and departed. After a little, he returned with a gentlemanly looking man, who had a white mustache and imperial, and carried himself with a military air.
“Monsieur,” said the waiter to Frank, “this is M. Delambre.”
M. Delambre bowed in a most courteous manner.
“And what favor may I have the honor of doing you, gentlemen?” he asked suavely.
“I was here this afternoon,” said Frank, speaking boldly and to the point.
“And you return again to-night,” smiled M. Delambre in a flattered manner. “That speaks well for the manner in which you were entertained. Accept my thanks.”
“Oh, I was well entertained!” exclaimed Frank. “It was in this room, too. Here I came, alone and a stranger, and here I was set upon by a pack of ruffians, from whom I barely escaped with my life!”
M. Delambre seemed thunderstruck. He started back, and stared at Merry, one hand uplifted.
“Monsieur,” he cried gently, “what are you saying? Are you mad? Or are you jesting, after the manner of some foreigners?”
“I am neither, M. Delambre; I am speaking the truth, as you must know.”
“Be careful, sir. I have a respectable place here, and I cannot afford to have my business ruined.”
“Your place seems respectable enough now, but it was filled with ruffians this afternoon. In this very room, I fought a band of them, and they came near doing me up. Now, M. Delambre, I have some questions to ask you, and it is best that you answer them.”
“Sir, you are insulting!” he said harshly. “I can prove by a hundred persons that my house is thoroughly respectable, and I will permit no one to injure me by such stories. I advise you to leave here at once, or I will call in the gendarmes!”
“Call them, if you like,” said Merry, with perfect coolness. “I do not believe you care to attract attention to yourself and your place.”
“You foreigners—you Englishmen!” he cried. “It is useless to argue with you!”
Frank did not fancy being called an Englishman, and he told the Frenchman as much.
“I am an American, and in America we have a way of coming straight to the point. Now, see here, M. Delambre, I do not wish to make you any trouble, but I am trying to find out something about a friend whom I followed into this place. He has disappeared.”