“It was a miserable little thing, and I was in Madrid,” he went on breathlessly, “and they came to me, some men from a factory at Barcelona. You remember?” He seemed anxious to exculpate himself from the unspoken charge. “Only once,” interrupted Leon quickly, “and not by my wish you remember, Manfred you remember, Poiccart”-he did not address Thery-”I advised against it. “Our friend here”-Manfred jerked his head in the direction of Gonsalez and laughed-”our friend has a conscience and-” The hands of Gonsalez, never still, opened and shut nervously, which was Leon’s sign of perturbation. “The Prince was severely injured and the would-be assassin lost an arm,” he read, and pursed his lips disapprovingly. Poiccart was reading the telegram deliberately and without haste, after his fashion. “Bah! Who ever killed a man with a bomb! Yes, yes I know it has been done-but so clumsy, so primitive, so very much like undermining a city wall that it may fall and slay-amongst others-your enemy.” Manfred’s moustache curled in scornful derision.

“A governor of one of the Southern Provinces.” Poiccart frowned and reached for the newspaper. “These Russians are droll,” he commented.

Manfred laid down the Heraldo di Madrid, removed his eyeglass, rubbed it with a spotless handkerchief, and laughed quietly. He sat at the little table, this man, obviously ill at ease, pinching his fat cheeks, smoothing his shaggy eyebrows, fingering the white scar on his unshaven chin, doing all the things that the lower classes do when they suddenly find themselves placed on terms of equality with their betters.įor although Gonsalez, with the light blue eyes and the restless hands, and Poiccart, heavy, saturnine, and suspicious, and George Manfred, with his grey-shot beard and single eyeglass, were less famous in the criminal world, each was a great man, as you shall learn. As Thery, alias Saimont, he is registered, and to all students of Criminology and Physiognomy, he must need no introduction. In the Bureau of Public Affairs you will find his record. Of this quartet, only Thery requires no introduction to the student of contemporary history. Leon Gonsalez was one, Poiccart was another, George Manfred was a notable third, and one, Thery, or Saimont, was the fourth. Next Chapter Part I - The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Chapter I - Thery's Tradeįour men sat about a table on the sidewalk in front of the Café of the Nations in the High Street of Cadiz and talked business.

The four just men book