The Dark Star

"Eh, zoum--zoum--zoum!

Boum--boum--boum!

Here's to the Artillery

Gaily riding by!

Fetch me a distillery,

Let me drink it dry--

Fill me full of sillery!

Here's to the artillery!

Zoum--zoum--zoum!

Boum--boum--boum!"

"Fifi!"

"M'sieu?"

"You're so clever! Where is that Yellow Devil now?"

"Pouf!" giggled Fifi. "On its way to Berlin, pardie!"

"That's easy to say. Tell me something else more expensive."

Nini said, surprised: "What we know is free to Prince Erlik's friend. Did you think we sell

to Russians?"

"I don't know anything about you or where you get your information,"

said Neeland. "I suppose you're in the Secret Service of the Russian

Government."

"Mon ami, Nilan," said Fifi, smiling, "we should feel lonely

outside the Secret Service. Few in Europe are outside--few in the

world, fewer in the half-world. As for us Tziganes, who belong to

neither, the business of everybody becomes our secret to sell for a

silver piece--but not to Russians in the moment of peril!... Nor to

their comrades.... What do you desire to know, comrade?"

"Anything," he said simply, "that might help me to regain what I have

lost."

"And what do you suppose!" exclaimed Fifi, opening her magnificent

black eyes very wide. "Did you imagine that nobody was paying any

attention to what happened in the rue Soleil d'Or this noon?"

Nini laughed.

"The word flew as fast as the robber's taxicab. How many thousand

secret friends to the Triple Entente do you suppose knew of it half an

hour after it happened? From the Trocadero to Montparnasse, from the

Point du Jour to Charenton, from the Bois to the Bièvre, the word

flew. Every taxicab, omnibus, sapin, every bateau-mouche, every

train that left any terminal was watched.

"Five embassies and legations were instantly under redoubled

surveillance; hundreds of cafés, bars, restaurants, hôtels; all the

theatres, gardens, cabarets, brasseries.

"Your pigs of Apaches are not neglected, va! But, to my idea, they

got out of Paris before we watchers knew of the affair at all--in an

automobile, perhaps--perhaps by rail. God knows," said the girl,

looking absently at the dancing which had begun again. "But if we ever

lay our eyes on Minna Minti, we wear toys in our garters which will

certainly persuade her to take a little stroll with us."

After a silence, Neeland said: "Is Minna Minti then so well known?"

"Not at the Opéra Comique," replied Fifi with a shrug, "but since

then."