'My dear sir, you will grant me a certain
amount of experience in a profession which I
have followed for twenty years?"

"Simple soul," thought Coehe, *Tiow sur-
prised you would be if you knew the name of
the informer I You may brag now, but your
voice was not so authoritative last night when
you begged me. . . . No, your informer is not
coming to ask for money. The louis which
you would give him does not satisfy all his
ambitions; your experience counts for very
little beside his cunning."

And he added, aloud :

"Certainly . . . and yet it is quite true that
this is a very strange business, and I wonder
where to begin."

"That's your own look-out. First of all
make sure that the information is accurate,
and then simply see that you give me four



72 THE GRIP OF FEAR

hundred lines with photographs for this eve-
ning. If you carry this business through
properly, you shall have a rise of fifty francs
a month in your salary."

"I am very much obliged to you," said the
reporter.
And to himself he thought :

"If I carry the thing through, what / call
canying through, it will not be a question of
fifty francs, my dear man ; any one who wants
Onesimus Coche will have to bid high; I will
do things on a grand scale, a rAm6ricaineI"

Outside, the blue of the sky was slightly
filmy; a faint glimmer of daylight blended its
white reflection with the light of the lamp.
