HAVING reached his rooms, Lorenzo Brayton called a certain private detective agency on the telephone and made his requests known; and then he ordered the apartment-house clerk not to ring his telephone for anything or anybody. The Japanese servant sensed that something was wrong, but his face remained inscrutable, as is the habit with his race, and he showed no curiosity when Brayton told him that there would be two other gentlemen for dinner.
An hour later the two arrived. They were gigantic men, and any experienced crook in the world would have said instantly that they were detectives. As a matter of fact, they belonged to a private agency which managed to conduct itself so as to remain inside the law, but at which many officials looked askance.
“You are to do bodyguard work for a few
