THE SINS OF SÉVERAC BABLON

By Sax Rohmer

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne

First published January 1914.
Popular Edition February 1919.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. To Introduce Mr. Julius Rohscheimer
CHAPTER II. "Thirty Men who were all Alike"
CHAPTER III. Midnight—and the Man
CHAPTER IV. The Head of Cæsar
CHAPTER V. A Mystic Hand
CHAPTER VI. The Shadow of Séverac Bablon
CHAPTER VII. The Ring
CHAPTER VIII. In the Dressing-room
CHAPTER IX. Es-Sindibad of Cadogan Gardens
CHAPTER X. Kimberley
CHAPTER XI. Mr. Sanrack Visits the Hotel Astoria
CHAPTER XII. Love, Lucre and Mr. Alden
CHAPTER XIII. The Listener
CHAPTER XIV. Zoe Dreams
CHAPTER XV. At "The Cedars"
CHAPTER XVI. The Lamp and the Mask
CHAPTER XVII. The Damascus Curtain
CHAPTER XVIII. A White Orchid
CHAPTER XIX. Three Letters
CHAPTER XX. Closed Doors
CHAPTER XXI. A Corner in Millionaires
CHAPTER XXII. The Turkish Yataghan
CHAPTER XXIII. M. Levi
CHAPTER XXIV. "V-e-n-g-e-n-c-e"
CHAPTER XXV. An Official Call
CHAPTER XXVI. Grimsdyke
CHAPTER XXVII. Yellow Cigarettes
CHAPTER XXVIII. At the Palace—and Later

CHAPTER I

TO INTRODUCE MR. JULIUS ROHSCHEIMER

"There's half a score of your ancestral halls," said Julius Rohscheimer, "that I could sell up to-morrow morning!"

Of the quartet that heard his words no two members seemed quite similarly impressed.

The pale face of Adeler, the great financier's confidential secretary, expressed no emotion whatever. Sir Richard Haredale flashed contempt from his grey eyes—only to veil his scorn of the man's vulgarity beneath a cloud of tobacco smoke. Tom Sheard, of the Gleaner, drew down a corner of his mouth and felt ashamed of the acquaintance. Denby, the music-hall comedian, softly whistled those bars of a popular ballad set to the words, "I stood in old Jerusalem."

"Come along to Park Lane with me," continued Rohscheimer, fixing his dull, prominent eyes upon Sheard, "and you'll see more English nobility than you'd find inside the House of Lords!"

"What's made him break out?" the comedian whispered, aside, to Adeler. For it was an open secret that this man, whose financial operations shook the thrones of monarchy, whose social fêtes were attended by the smartest people, was subject to outbursts of the kind which now saw him seated before a rapidly emptying magnum in a corner of the great restaurant. At such times he would frequent the promenades of music-halls, consorting with whom he found there, and would display the gross vulgarity of a Whitechapel pawnbroker or tenth-rate variety agent.

"'S-sh!" replied the secretary. "A big coup! It is always so with him. Mr. Rohscheimer is overwrought. I shall induce him to take a holiday."