Henri Bartot was one of the wildest youths in Paris.

It was he who started the first band of thieves, from which developed the present hoard of _apaches_." "And now ?" I asked.
"He is their unrecognized, unspoken-of leader," Louis whispered.

"The man who offends him to-night would be lucky to find himself alive to-morrow." I looked across the room curiously.

There was not a single redeeming feature in the man's face except, perhaps, the suggestion of brute, passionate force which still lingered about his thick, straight lips and heavy jaw.

The woman by his side seemed incomprehensible.