So we had cognac citron and the Captain began to talk, in a low voice and with quick apprehensive glances here and there at our neighbors. “We’ve got to hurry matters a little,” he informed me. “To-morrow I will not go with you to the Madame’s. I will telephone her and beg off, but I’ll ask her if she would mind entertaining you while I am engaged elsewhere. She knows you are close to General Backett and she knows enough about him to know that he’s the kind of hard-working devil that would keep track of everything that’s going on—so I haven’t any doubt about her willingness to entertain you.” “But she doesn’t seem to be very crazy about me,” I objected. “She likes you.” “Oh—don’t let her mislead you. She’s nice to me because it’s part of her job—if she’s what I think she is. And as far as you’re concerned, just take it easy and let her entertain you. Just wait for the breaks. Play with her if she wants to play, stay with her if she wants you to stay, sleep with her, do anything at all that will give you an opportunity of seeing or hearing something.” He offered me a cigarette and I accepted as I nodded understanding. This job didn’t appeal to me at all, but I couldn’t very well get out of it now. I mean, I hadn’t any excuse that I could give. I accepted a light and he continued, “If you can, try to get an idea of where her money comes from. She has a bank account down town, but her deposits are very erratic and the checks she gets from the States very seldom tally with the amounts deposited. We have traced the checks to a harmless-looking lawyer in New York, but we haven’t questioned him because we don’t want to give away our hand. We figure that she gets funds from someone here in Paris also, and if we can discover who that party is, we’ll be on the track of real evidence.” “Don’t you suppose some of these officers tickle the kitty?” I asked, adopting the slang phrase for contributing. He laughed at that and gave me his reasons for believing that she was not that wanton. “She’s too high brow, too much the social woman, to let herself be under obligations to any man. It would cramp her style and sooner or later ruin her. Anyway, if she were selling it, she’d concentrate on one at a time for better results: but you see she is on good terms with dozens of men all at once.... No, that’s not the explanation. There’s some other source of income. And that source of income is doubtless the outlet for her information, so if you get any hint of a connection of any kind, we’ll play our hunch and follow it to the end. Beginning to-morrow, it’s up to you. You can tell her how busy I am and so forth, just to keep the story straight. And I’ll get in touch with you around noontime each day.”