The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories | Page 2

of the rooms at the front. We have parties in A and B."
"You go and find him," said Nick. "I want to see him right away."
Gaspard went to the front of the house. A hall branched off at right
angles with that in which Nick was standing. On the second hall were
three rooms, A, B and C.
Room C was next the avenue. The other two had windows on an open
space between two wings of the building. Nick glanced at the register,
and saw that "R.M. Clark and wife" had been assigned to room A, and

"John Jones and wife" to room B. Room C was vacant.
The detective had barely time to note these entries on the book when
Gaspard came running back.
His face was as white as paper, and his lips were working as if he were
saying something, but not a sound came from them.
He was struck dumb with fright. Whatever it was that he had seen must
have been horrible, to judge from the man's trembling limbs and
distorted face.
Nick had seen people in that condition before, and he did not waste
time trying to get any information out of Gaspard.
Instead, he seized the frightened fellow by the shoulder and pushed him
along toward the front of the house.
Gaspard made a feeble resistance. Evidently he did not want to see
again the sight which had so terrified him.
But he was powerless in Nick's grasp. In five seconds they stood before
the open door of room B.
The door was open, and there was a bright glare of gas within.
It shone upon the table, where a rich repast lay untasted. It illumined
the gaudy furnishings of the room and the costly pictures upon the
walls.
It shone, too, upon a beautiful face, rigid and perfectly white, except for
a horrible stain of black and red upon the temple.
The face was that of a woman of twenty-five years. She had very
abundant hair of a light corn color, which clustered in little curls
around her forehead, and was gathered behind in a great mass of plaited
braids.
She reclined in a large easy-chair, in a natural attitude, but the pallid

face, the fixed and glassy eyes, and the grim wound upon the temple
announced, in unmistakable terms, the presence of death.
Nick drew a long breath and set his lips together firmly. He had felt
that something was wrong in that house. The waiter who had run across
the sidewalk and got into that carriage had borne a guilty secret with
him, as the detective's experienced eye had instantly perceived.
But this was a good deal worse than Nick had expected. He had looked
for a robbery, or, perhaps, a secret and bloody quarrel between two of
the waiters, but not for a murder such as this.
One glance at the woman showed her to be elegant in dress and of a
refined appearance.
She could have had nothing in common with the missing Corbut, unless,
indeed, he was other than he seemed.
Certainly, whatever was Corbut's connection with the crime, there was
another person, at least, as intimately concerned in it. And he, too, had
fled.
Where was the man who had brought this woman to this house? How
was it possible to account for his absence except by the conclusion that
he was the murderer?
That was the first and most natural explanation. Whether it was the true
one or not, the man must be found.
Nick turned to Gaspard. The head waiter had sunk down on a chair by
the table and seemed prostrated.
From previous experience Nick knew Gaspard to be a man without
nerve, and he was not surprised to find him prostrated by this sudden
shock.
There was a bottle of champagne standing in ice beside the table. The
detective opened it and made Gaspard drink a glass of the sparkling

liquor.
It put a little heart into the man, and he was able to answer questions.
Nick, meanwhile, closed the door of the room. Apparently the tragedy
was known only to Gaspard and himself and to the guilty authors of it.
"Did you see this woman when she came in?" asked Nick.
"No."
"Who showed her and the man with her to this room?"
"Corbut."
"Who waited on them?"
"Corbut."
"Who waited on the people in room A?"
"Corbut."
"They are gone, I suppose?"
"Yes; I looked in there before I came in here."
"Did you see any of these people?"
"I saw the two men."
"How did that happen?"
"One of them came out into the hall to call Corbut, who had not
answered the bell quick enough."
"Which one was that?"
"The man in room A."

"How do you know?"
"Because