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154 the cracked, imitation-marble mantel were of cheap, highly-polished light oak, as were the center table and chairs. A wide, comfortable-looking couch stood against the opposite wall, and from behind a half-drawn curtain in the corner the end of a small gas-stove was visible, with pots and pans hanging beneath a shelf upon which china and canned goods were stacked indiscriminately.

Evidently this room was more than a rendezvous; it was a complete apartment in itself in which one could live indefinitely without aid or interference from the outside world.

"Of course this is not the Bellemonde Annex," Drew remarked with an ironically deprecatory air as if reading the other's thoughts. "It has its uses, however. Sit down, Sergeant. Will you smoke?"

Odell shook his head but pulled a chair up to the table and seated himself. Drew had assumed the upper hand in opening the interview, and the detective was well content to leave the situation for the time being in the other's control. He was curious to learn the motive back of his host's attitude. Drew had spoken of a "mutually satisfactory understanding." That could only mean a bargain, a compromise, or attempted bribery. Odell believed the man before him to be too clever to essay the latter; yet what compromise could he hope to effect with the police? The very fact that he sought to establish one told against him in the present situation, as he must realize.

Drew, meanwhile, had taken a box of cigars from a drawer of the sideboard, selected one and lighted it leisurely before he strolled over to the chair across the table from his guest and seated himself.