The team hires a cab to bring them from Charenton to their hotel in central Paris. They find the road blocked a few hundred meters away from their destination: anti-war protests are in progress, with unruly youths taking the streets and mounted policemen assembling to oppose them. The investigators decide to avoid the protests and head back on foot.

Having read Prof. Smith's journal on the Blood Red Fez, the 1923 investigators become convinced that the simulacrum story is not a mad man's dream but indeed represents serious danger. The team decides to depart for Paris as soon as possible, in order to investigate Smith's clues. 

In Budapest, the investigators decide to avoid the Orient Express for the final leg of their journey to Istambul. Menkaph is on the train and must undoubtedly have noticed that his victim and the Whispering Fez are missing. They decide to hire a coach to the border, and ride the local trains across the Serbian kingdom and Bulgaria. Moving as fast as the connections allow, the team arrives in Istambul almost a day after leaving Budapest.