Chapter
26
JOHNNY was the first of the guests to arrive, and Stevens helped him to take off his raincoat. As he did so, he asked in a low voice: "Got a g*n, Captain?"
"Never carry one, Stevens. It is a bad habit to get into."
"I never thought you were a mug," said Stevens in the same voice.
"Any man who has been in prison is, ex officio, one of the Ancient Order of Muggery," said Johnny, adjusting his bow in the mirror by the porter's desk. "What's going?"
"I don't know," said the other, bending down to wipe the mud from Johnny's boots. "But curious things have happened in No. 13; and don't sit with your back to the buffet. Do you get that?"
Johnny nodded.
He had reached the end of the corridor when he heard the whine of the ascending lift, and stopped. It was Peter Kane, and to hi
