“These three people really become interesting from the time that La Belle Lola quitted the stage and joined her husband in the conducting of a concern in Buenos Ayres, which was the parent, if I may use the term, of the Kazmah business later established in Bond Street.  From a music-hall illusionist, who came to grief during a South American tour, they acquired the oriental waxwork figure which subsequently mystified so many thousands of dupes.  It was the work of a famous French artist in wax, and had originally been made to represent the Pharaoh, Rameses II., for a Paris exhibition.  Attired in Eastern robes, and worked by a simple device which raised and lowered the right hand, it was used, firstly, in a stage performance, and secondly, in the character of ‘Kazmah the Dream-reader.’

“Even at this time Sir Lucien had access to good society, or to the best society which Buenos Ayres could offer, and he was the source of the surprising revelations made to patrons by the ‘dream-reader.’  At first, apparently, the drug business was conducted independently of the Kazmah concern, but the facilities offered by the latter for masking the former soon became apparent to the wily Sin Sin Wa.  Thereupon the affair was reorganized on the lines later adopted in Bond Street.  Kazmah’s became a secret dope-shop, and annexed to it was an elaborate chandu-khan, conducted by the Chinaman.  Mrs. Sin was the go-between.

“You are all waiting to hear—­or, to be exact, two are waiting to hear, Gray and Margaret already know—­who spoke as Kazmah through the little window behind the chair.  The deep-voiced speaker was Juan Mareno, Mrs. Sin’s brother!  Mrs. Sin’s maiden name was Lola Mareno.

“Many of these details were provided by Mareno, who, after the death of his sister, to whom he was deeply attached, volunteered to give crown evidence.  Most of them we have confirmed from other sources.

“Behold ‘Kazmah the dream-reader,’ then, established in Buenos Ayres.  The partners in the enterprise speedily acquired considerable wealth.  Sir Lucien—­at this time plain Mr. Pyne—­several times came home and lived in London and elsewhere like a millionaire.  There is no doubt, I think, that he was seeking a suitable opportunity to establish a London branch of the business.”

“My God!” said Monte Irvin.  “How horrible it seems!”

“Horrible, indeed!” agreed Seton.  “But there are two features of the case which, in justice to Sir Lucien, we should not overlook.  He, who had been a poor man, had become a wealthy one and had tasted the sweets of wealth; also he was now hopelessly in the toils of the woman Lola.

“With the ingenious financial details of the concern, which were conducted in the style of the ‘Jose Santos Company,’ I need not trouble you now.  We come to the second period, when the flat in Albemarle Street and the two offices in old Bond Street became vacant and were promptly leased by Mareno, acting on Sir Lucien’s behalf, and calling himself sometimes Mr. Isaacs, sometimes Mr. Jacobs, and at other times merely posing as a representative of the Jose Santos Company in some other name.