Redmayne explained that he was an American beyond their reach at
present.
"Mr. Ganns," he said, "is my best friend in the world--save
and excepting one man only. He--my first and most precious
intimate--dwells at Bellagio, on the opposite side of Lake Como from
myself. Signor Virgilio Poggi is a bibliophile of European eminence
and the most brilliant of men--a great genius and my dearest
associate for twenty-five years. But Peter Ganns also is a very
astounding person--a detective officer by profession--but a man of
many parts and full of such genuine understanding of humanity that
to know him is to gain priceless insight.
"I myself lack that intimate knowledge of character which is his
native gift. Books I know better than men, and it was my peculiar
acquaintance with books that brought Ganns and me together in New
York. There I served him well in an amazing police case and aided
him to prove a crime, the discovery of which turned upon a certain
paper manufactured for the Medici. But a greater thing than this
criminal incident sprang from it; and that is my friendship with the
wonderful Peter.
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