BY FORGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

BY FORGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

BY GORDON HOLMES.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

[COPYRIGHT.]

CHAPTER Xlll.—(Continued.) Soon* a faint gleam of light shot into the room. It was fitful, and flickered in and out, though each glint of dull radiance became stronger. Bagot, therefore, was carrying a bull's-eye lantern." Loigh, in a species of commentary on Bagot's doings, asked himself how it was possible for anyone but himself to gain admission to the abbey without the knowledge of Jenkins. It was scarcely credible that his trusted butler would allow a visitor to roam freely over the house, especially at such a late hour.

Elinor, too, sweet intruder, and that quaint ally of hers, the detective, must have entered the place secretly. _ Here was an item that called for investigation to-morrow; meanwhile, it was to-night, and Bagot was tapping his way up the final incline, and would soon be in sight. Nor was Leigh in error in picturing the stout agile form, crowned by the big eggshaped head, with its mass of dark hair, .that would emerge from the tunnel. It was Bagot himself, in evening dross, but over his black clothes and broad expanse of shirt-front was a light dustcoat, and Arthur noted instantly that one, outer pocket, hung heavily. To all appearance Bagot had never before entered the circular storeroom. Just as Leigh had done, he stood at the entrance and surveyed every part. It was almost uncanny for Arthur to find Bagot's shrewd bland eyes gazing up at him, unconsciously, from beneath their heavy brows. He had to force himself to believe that though we can see a whole city through a pinhole in a piece of paper, the whole city can see nothing behind the piece of paper. Nevertheless, so poworful is imagination, ho was quite pleased when Bagot looked elsewhere.

Naturally tho newcomer's attention was drawn by the continuation of the tunnel. He went there at once, peeped in, blocked up the passage with his huge frame, and speedily withdrew it, for he was very much alivo to the danger of pushing investigation too far in that direction. Standing now with his back to the aircurrent, ho cast the lantern's searchlight up to the shelves and vaulted roof again. Leigh felt that he himself was squinting horribly; he could afford to lose no movement of his enemy, but ho hoped devoutly that Bagot would soon cross tho floor to a less oblique angle of vision. Tho capacious shelves evidently invited inquiry; and Leigh's fingers closed on the butt of tho revolver when Bagot approached the opposite ladder and gave ono of tho rungs a tentative shake. But at that moment while Bagot was measuring his weight against the crossoars, and Leigh was wondering under what exact conditions it was justifiable to

shoot a man in accord with British law, a lively whistling and a jaunty step came from the long corridor. A crash of thunder could not have amazed , either man more profoundly.. Both, by a species of intuition, knew who it was, and each was called on to meet a new and wholly unforeseen set of circumstances. Arthur expected that Bagot would extinguish his lantern, skulk into the brokendown passage, and, possibly, try to kill Furneaux before the detective was even aware of his presence. In that case Leigh's tactics were definite. He would wait until Fumeaux was near enough to hear, and then yell a warning that he was to advance no further. As a result in all probability Bagot would appear, begin to explain matters, and wonder what blight had fallen on him that a young fool of an ex-trooper of South African Horse should be for ever blocking his path. Bagot, however, after the first sljock had passed, and the sudden greenness of\ his face was replaced by its customary pallor, neither put out his lantern nor strove to hide. His hand dropped to that heavy pocket of his overcoat, but he withdrew it again, and began to stroke his array of chins. He was of the type that allows thought to govern action. The mere killing of Furneaux, assuming that Bagot was so minded,"might be an irretrievable blunder. The conditions demanded the exercise of wit, and Bagot prided himself on his overwhelming superiority to the detective in that essential. Leigh, watching him, was filled with hope that there, might be a struggle. He did not want to shoot the man in-'cold blood, but he did want to sink his fingers into that bull neck, and repay, once and for all, the torture of the chase through the wilderness of " Nielpahar," and the searing agony of those two wounds in Elinor's arm. His muscles twitched* at the prospect, and not for an instant did he take an eye off Bagot, not even when Furneaux appeared, ceased whistling as though lost in astonishment, and held a lantern above his head in well-affected effort to learn who it was that already tenanted the vault.

"Well, of all the wonderful things!" gasped the little man, discovering Bagot with some such sentiment of joy as Galle must have felt when the planet Neptune swam into the fields of his entranced vision.

"Apparently the earth holds but us two," laughed Bagot. " Good, sir—just the remark I would have expected from you. Now, if I were a scientist like you, Mr. Bagot, I would cap it by saying something about the attraction of large bodies for smaller ones. You big men us tiny fellows as a loadstone draws a needle.''

" Pretty well put, Furneaux. Somehow, one associates a needle with a detective. Both are sharp and keen, and given to probing. Bub a needle should only be used on soft material. If it endeavours to carry out the functions, say, of a rockdrill, it gets broken." "No use in my trying, then, to bore a way through this granite in the attempt to solve old Rollaston Leigh's secret. Ha, ha! llum old boy he must have been."

"Oh, is that why yon are here? You have many activities, Furneaux." "Yes, busy man; prying, too; a regular poke-nose. But would it be a liberty to suggest, sir, that you seem to find rather varied occupations?" " Out with it, man. A plain question often wins an honest answer. You want to know what I am doing on these premises, presumably without the owner's permission?" "No, Mr. Bagot, I know already." " You guess, you mean." " 1 never guess. I absorb information; I suckle my wits on facts. I buzz about like a bee in everybody's flower-patch, and finally produce the complete honeycomb. It may be thin stuff, but it . isn't guessing!" Bagot, it might be, resented this too successful parodying of his own elusive method of speech. He placed his lantern on the nearest shelf, leaned his hands into his trousers pockets, and looked steadily at Furneaux, who, by this time, had deposited his lantern on the stone floor. Furneaux took a crushed cigar from his loose grey jacket, and smelt at it. The action seemed to displease Bagot more than the badinage. " You are at liberty to dispense with parables," he said frowning. "Personally, 1 like men who come to the point. Why are von spying on me, Furneaux?" "Because you and I cannot agree as to the prospective ownership of Rollaston Leigh's hundred and fifty thousand pounds, Mr. Bagot." "What reason have you foj believing that any such sum of money is hidden here?"

"It is hidden somewhere. Both Edward James Dix and John Churchill were honest, men. They humoured Rollaston Leigh's mud fancy, but they did not intend to rol) his heir."

" Do you imply that I mean to rob his heir?"

" Implying and guessing are similar terms, Mr. Bagot." " It. is no secret to you that I wish to lease the abbey from Mr. Arthur Leigh." ( So I have been told." "And that he has agreed to it?" "Exactly." that I have promised to find the fifty thousand necessary to prevent foreclosure 2"

There should have been no foreclosure if Messrs. Dix and Churchill were alive."

" What, thenare they both dead?" " Both, Mr. Bagot." "Dear me! Dear me! Extraordinary coincidence! That poor fellow Dix was murdered, apparently, by some one who had local interests, and now you tell me of Churchill being dead too. Was he murdered?"

"Hard to say as yet. His body was found smashed to a pulp, on a mountainside in Breconshire."

" Foundwhen?"

"This morning at nine o'clock." "Now you mention it, there was something in to-day's newspapers about his disappearance. Strange thing! But you must not lose your head, Furneaux. You are apt to think wild, you know—said to young Leigh that you actually suspected me of having a hand in the Dix affair— and going out of your way to prompt Miss Elinor to secure a hat of mine.'"so that you might compare measurements with that motor cap which Leigh said he picked up near the barge. Billy! Silly!"

" One has to test every little clue, Mr. Bagot," said the detective humbly.

"But there is no clue when a man say 6 the cap was just like his, and admits the size."

"Quite true. One of my failings. No guessing, you see. Like to be sure." " And again, suppose I was the criminal -—ha, ha ! —"

"He, he!" laughed Furneaux.

"Supposing, then, that I killed Dix, find meant to steal that imaginary hundred and fifty thou', and, and—well, even you can't dream that I . smashed Churchill to a pulp in Breconshire yesterday—" "This morning," broke-in the detective apologetically. " Well, whenever the poor man was dislocated, but, granted the other misdeeds, how foolish of you to trust yourself alone with such a desperate character, alone, in this unknown gallery, with a ready-made grave in there" Bagot jerked a fat thumb toward the tumbledown exit-"and you unarmed, too, for Scotland Yard men seldom carry revolvers." "It would have been foolish if I had done all that."

" But here you are !"

"Yes, thus far you are right. One takes risks, naturally, in my profession One is compelled to. I might be killed here, quite secretly— secretly as Dix or Churchill, but the difference comes in in the presence of Inspector Lawson and a uniformed constable at the only practicable outlet. They would wonder why a small man went in and a large one came out. They would bo inquisitive. In fact-

" Pooh !"

Bagot spread out his hands deprecatingly.

"Pooh!" he said again. "A child would not reason that way. Consider, my dear Furneaux ; pray regard me as a malefactor at bay. What possible, deterrent is a policeman more or less in the world? One shoots one, two, or threethe number is immaterial—what better retreat could the shooter have than this very chamber? What is the result? That un fortunate devil Leigh would have anothei deadly crime to explain away. Really for a Scotland Yard expert, you are toe trusting." Guesswork is good occasionally It is the basis of scientific research. Yoi ought to have guessed, Furneaux, that ; thoroughbred villain would never miss sue! a splendid opportunity. ' How oft the means to do ill deeds — ? you know the res! of it. Ah, you have slipped, my friend slipped to the lip of a precipice." .• Bagot, in sheer enjoyment of his analy sis of Fumeaux's error, threw out hi; hands again, and thrust them into . tin pockets of his overcoat.

Leigh felt a wave of electricity in the air. ■ He would have liked to observe Furneaux's face while Bagot was talking, but he dared not tako his eyes off Bagot. Something, told him that Furneaux had really miscalculated Bagot's daring. It was a Napoleonic maxim to attack when adversaries thought they were safest, and Bagot had the head, the brain, the force of a double-sized Napoleon. Whether rightly or wrongly, Leigh believed that he must act, and act quickly. He rose to his knees, drew the revolver, and peered over the edge of the shelf.

"Of course, one reports one's movements and knowledge to one's superiors," Furneaux was saying; but' Bagot only chuckled.

"I told Leigh you were devoid of intellect," he cried, with the self-satisfied smirk of a cat watching the effort« of a crippled mouse to escape. "You used to be a good man after a burglar, or a coiner, or even a commonplace murderer skulking in a London slum, but you were no good when pitted against a mind. ' I hate to lecture you, Furneaux, though it is a weakness of mine to point out these defects, in my opponents"

Leigh aimed steadily at Bagot's expanse of chest.

"Take your right hand out of your pocket, Bagot!" he said, "and be sure that it is empty or you drop dead!"

CHAPTER XIV. bagot's 'EBB TIDE.

Eagot looked up. Even he, the man who was either all nerve, or with no nervous system liko unto other men's, was startled. For one supreme instant his heart stopped beating, and his sallow cheeks blanched to dreadful whiteness.

Then ho laughed gaily, waving both hands to Arthur.

" Too absurd !" he cried. "You there! what a comedy!"

" Good as a play !" murmured Furneaux, with a curious break in his voice, as though he, at any rate, had found the humour of the situation rather overpowering.

" But such interruptions should not come from the wings, or is it the flies?" guffawed Bagot. You spoiled a fine scene, Leigh. . . . It is seldom one impales a detective on the horns o£ a dilemma. , You really ought ,to have permitted me to toss him gently for- a while." Though Bagot's mirth was well assumed, Arthur, looking along the Barrel of his pistol, saw behind that giggling mask the malice of a disappointed fiend. He remembered once, while crouching on a kopjo to watch a Boer commando trekking across a stream, that a great black snake, disturbed in its siesta, raised its head just in front of his sheltering rock and peered at him spitefully. He dared not stir then. The slightest movement or sound might have been detected by the skilled hunters among the enemy. After a nerve-racking moment of uncertainty the snake squirmed away into a crevice and was seen 110 more. But he would never forget" the reptile hatred of all mankind that gleamed from it? beady eyes, and Bagot's sudden access of frivolity could not altogether hide the diabolic scowl that rose from his very soul. "Hold ydur hands up!"- said Leigh coolly. " My dear young friend, why change a farce into melodrama?"

"Up, Two!—"

before I count three. One !

"My turn to bo roasted, I suppose," sighed Bagot, raising his hands. "Now, Furnoaiix. search him. There is a. revolver in that right-hand pocket," said 'Arthur.

" Capital situation !" 'cried Furneaux, dancing lightly up to Bagot, but taking pains to leave the lino of fire open from above. "Simply ripping! Make the fortune of any budding dramatist. And so unexpected! . . . the very essence of stagecraft 1 All, a loaded revolver, too! 'Pon, my honour, Mr. Bagot, I don't know which to admire most, you as the heavy villain, or Mr. Leigh in his star role as the valiant hero. What a pity I ain't a girl! He! ho ! Not got another eixshooter in the. other pocket, Mr. Bagot? No. . . . And, well now, Ido declare, if this isn't the mate of the revolver that was knocked out of Mr. Leigh's hand when ho fell into the river!"

" Another remarkable coincidence ! Motor hat, Exhibit A; pistol. Exhibit B; Churchill's gas bill ; Exhibit C. By jove, Furneaux, if you go on in this fashion you'll bo thinking of arresting poor mo!" and Bagot grinned again good-naturedly, for his eyes were lowered. »

"But this is really most peculiar," chattered Furneaux, turning the weapon round and round with the careful scrutiny of a collector of china examining a rare blue piece of the Ming dynasty. " Same make, same marks, same cartridges. You have my congratulations, Mr. Bagot. If some of my brutal colleagues of the Yard' had this barge murder in hand they would arrest you at once.. And that .would bo. a.

pity, a thousand pities ! You have no idea wliat harm a pair of handcuffs can effect in disturbing the true lino of a promising inquiry—the artistic curve, I might call it. What is an arrest in a case like this? It ought to be the first step between the narrow walls of fact—a. sort of personally conducted tour to the scaffold. Too often it

isn't. Suppose I grabbed you now, where would 1 be when some loud-voiced King's counsel asked mo how you managed to fling the warm and naked body of your victim on to a barge moored in the Parret at an hour when a dozen credible witnesses swore you were in Chepstow, capleifs.' Imagine me in the box, and in a nice hole, too. Pretty figure I'd cut. No, no, Mr. Bagot, the case against Mr. Leigh is ten times stronger than against you, yet I haven't arrested him." During this jerky monologue Furneaux's antics were those of an excited ape. He seemed to be unable to stand still. He whirled from the light of Bagot's lantern to that of his own, twisting the revolver into every conceivable position, and peering at it from every point of view. But once, in a pirouette, he glanced up at Leigh, and his quick frown seemed to say. " Don't interfere—leave it to me!" Yet Leigh was on the very pinnacle of interference, not once but twice, for twice, when the detectivo's back was turned, Bagot seemed to be gathering himself for a catamount spring. It was not that lie crouched and made taut his muscles for a mighty leap that should submit to the lottery of chance and the vault's gloom whether or not ho overcame these two men. There was no outward indication of the tiger's rage that surged from heart to brain'. He remained impassive, immovable, to all seeming scornful and cynical. But magnetic rays were flowing from the man, and Leigh, strung to the tension of being judge and jury and executioner in the one fleeting instant that might decide Bagot's life or death, was probably receptive of such influences to an abnormal degree. Be that as it may, lie twice met Bagot's calculating eye, and twice came off victor in the silent contest, for lie often, and Bagot never, had looked death in the face and not flinched from it. And thus passed the most trying moments of an experience rich in thrills. Leigh well knew Bagot's hope. Taken unaware, the diminutive detective might have had the revolver wrested from his fingers, and a powerful man could use his body as a shield during the subsequent duel. Furneaux. oddly enough, appeared to be blithely unconscious of the risk he ran, but at last, with a quick turn of the wrist, he opened, the revolver and shook out the six cartridges, which he pocketed forthwith. "Dangerous thing, revolvers," ho said, smiling at Bagot. " Never carried one myself. Detectives can't go round shooting criminals at sight. My eye! If (.hat were allowed, wouldn't I make a record bag on a race day at Alexandra Park!" "Do you propose to keep my revolver?" asked Bagot. "No, sir. Why should I? I only took it to prevent hot blood between you and Mr. Leigh." " Hot blood! Mr. . Leigh!" Bagot ceased oven to affect surprise. He was now airily indifferent, though he did favour Arthur with a deprecating glance. "What quarrel is there between him and' me? Really, now,' I looked on myself somewhat in the light of a possible benefactor of Mr. Leigh's." "But touching; that little matter of the hidden money, sir?" Furneaux's tone was amazing to Arthur. It. was reproachful yet sympathetic. It conveyed the unspoken question: " Why 'will' you insist on such a disagreeable topic as between gentlemen?"

"Rollaston Leigh's money may or may not be in this place. If it is it can be found only by a navvy, a horde of navvies, armed with pickaxes. Do you honestly believe, Furneaux, that I meant to tea-* the secret out of these flints with bare fingers?"

"No imputations, sir: none whatever. Now, Mr. Leigh, you might come down. The passage lias been here several hundred years, and this room looks as if it would last our lives out. So we can glut our passion for research another time. , Useful typo of lantern you've got there, Mr. Bagot. Circular wick and dioptric lens. Saw it in the Paris Exhibition."

Arthur solved the ticklish problem of safe, descent by gripping the barrel of the revolver with his teeHi and swinging the candlestick from a. fing ?r. He scorned to look over his shoulder lest Bagot might bo tempted to dare a final leap. But if a self-imposed code of honour governed his eyes it could not close his ears, and he knew that the man who mixed coldblooded murder with dreams of the millennium remained in the pose he had not quitted since Furneaux's deft hands searched his clothes for concealed weapons.

But an odd thing happ-eend when Leigh faced the others on the pavement. Bagot eyed the pink candle; its tint, its neat volutions, seemed to fascinate him.

" Strange t" he said. "Another coincidence, Furneaux ! Last time I saw a candle like that it adornad a piano in the draw-ing-room of the Mishe Nahma."

Arthur was irritated by the absurd pretence of both men that a meeting fraught with deadly possibilities should be slurred over as a commonplace event. , So ho scarcely took thought ere he retorted : " Not so strange. Miss Hinton gave it to me."

* "When you paid a surprise visit to Nielpahar?" asked Bagot quietly, and the younger man felt that he had spoken too quickly. " Yes," he said, making the best of it. Bagot chuckled. " You poor Furneaux, how I pity you! Hero we have a lady and gentleman motoring to my place at a late hour, climbing walls, carrying ladders, equipping themselves with matches and candles, ransacking my empty house, ' and shooting _at hypothetical burglars. What do you think of it? My escapade to-night sounds feeble in comparison. I came to the front door, was admitted by Jenkins, who ascertained that his master* had gone out and allowed me to await his return, and I merely killed time by an antiquarian ramble. Honestly, Leigh, "that pink candle would puzzle even Furneaux's loud-voiced Iv.C. to explain it away." Arthur was stung to fury by the man's impudence. The memory of Elinor's satin skin seared by this hell-hound's bullets smoto him like a blow in the face, and he hungered for an excuse to clutch that well-fed carcase and crush it. in" mortal struggle. His eyes sparkled and his bronzed forehead grew white. "You d —d scoundrel" he began, but before he could say another word Furneaux was holding him in a grip of singular force. "Good gracious, Mr. Leigh, what has gone wrong," he asked. "Mr. Bagot meant no offence, not a particle. . . . perfectly harmless joke. . . really di-* rectod against me. Now, wasn't it, Mr. Bagot? There, thore! What wo all want is a whisky and soda. Nerves, nerves they're the curse of modern life. Mr. Bagot, will you bo so good as to lead the way? Thank you, thank you. Dear me! One of the consolations of middle ago is the power of ignoring lack of tact in the young." And as Bagot passed silently in front, lighting the dark tunnel wit h his exhibition dioptric lews, Furneaux shook Leigh viciously, though he kept up a running fire of comments on the ways of. monks, and smugglers, ami the manners of the dead and gone squirearchy, who turned a deaf ear to the blandishments of the King's Customs officers, until Bagot raised the bar of the panel, and stepped forth under the official, though none the less astonished, gaze of Inspector Lawson and a constable. * .

Law son, who evidently knew nothing Of aunt's prcsoncc ,in the passage, stooped to make sure that his colleague was within. Then, having a quaint trick of apt expression, ho said : Well, now ! if I didn't think you'd gone an' got yourself inflated with sower gas, Mr. Furneaux." Whereat Bagot laughed heartily. " What a thing to say !" he cried. " Inflated . . sewer gas . . me!" and he dug a thumb into his well-lined ribs. " No, my excellent inspector.* I am compounded of wholesome carbon—beef—not of poisonous mon-oxido!" 'Fish is good, too; phosphorous; brainforming," put in Fumeaux. "Brain? Pish!" muttered Bagot. " I'd like to have a squint inside there myself if it's empty now," said tho imperturbable Lawson when Leigh appeared in his turn.

"Certainly!" cried Furneaux at once. "You and Jones just amuso yourselves by .havinjcCa look round. Dpn't liurrx. JVo

three are going to chat for half an hour. But mind the broken bit beyond the arched room. That's dangerous. Nearly got myself entombed there by being too venturesome."

Leigh, though boiling with anger against Bagoti, could not help but admire the play of innuendo as between him and the detective. He was beginning dimly to appreciate Furneaux's attitude. Bagot was not a mere criminal —his was a mighty mind that had permitted itself to give unbridled play to its criminal impulses. To attempt to comer such a. man until escape was humanly impossible was to court disaster. Though Leigh's stock of legal lore was but the rough training of the veldt even the summary jurisdiction that permitted the hanging of a. Kaffir demanded some show of evidence, and he knew in his heart that the evidence against Bagot was of the flimsiest character.

Yet, when the three were standing in the lumber-room listening to the muffled steps of tho policemen inside the passage, his gorge rose at the thought that he was expected to treat Bagot with civility, perhaps to extend some show of hospitality. Ho determined to have none of this pretence.

" If you two wish to talk the library is at your disposal," he said curtly.

" What is there to be said'?" demanded Bagot. with admirable coolness. " For my part, lam rather tired. Of course, Leigh, we can drop the lease business until you are in a different frame of mind. -May 1 have my revolver, Furneaux'! You know as well as I do that you can buy fifty like it by making a round of gunsmiths' shops in London. And I am really concerned about my chauffeur. He has been going all day and all night."

Furneaux handed over the weapon without. a word. For a man with such a flow of chatter at his command it was odd that he should be silent at that moment. None spoke until they reached the hall, where a perplexed and anxious Jenkins met them. "If you please, (sir- —" he began, addressing his master, but glancing at Furneaux.

" Wait a bit, Jenkins," said Arthur. " Show Mr. Bagot to his motor, and never again admit him here on any pretence whatever."

Furneaux drew his breath in between his teeth with the grimace of one who suffers an unexpected spasm.

" Too bad !" he murmured. " Quite undeserved ! Hope you won't say that to me when I come to visit you at Nielpahar, Mr. Bagot?"

Bagot shook a fat forefinger at him playfully. " One never knows," he cried. "Even the philosophic worm may turn. But come, come! I may bo in forgiving mood. Good ni', Furneaux! Mes adieux, Leigh !" And he was gone, his departure being announced by the explosions and groaning gear of the automobile in the courtyard. (To bo continued on Saturday next.)

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. PRISONERS OF THE COUNCIL ■ ■ 1 O- ' ■■ BY LEWIS RAMSDEN, Author of " The Word of a Somerlelgh," f l Red Cavalier," "My Comrade Frank," " Under a Kingly Mask," * ' Etc., Etc.. . [COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER XXXIV. A PAXITY OF PRISONERS. Not yet properly recovered from the shock of surprise with which this latest disaster had come upon me, I gazed helplessly about tho familiar room. How had it all come about? Were the power and resources of the Council really so great that they had been able' to plan and carry out this thing to time, or had blind chance befriended them? How had they regained possession of tho house ; by what mysterious means had they entered? I did not feel I could blame myself, for I had not been careless, had not onco ceased to bo alert and vigilant.

And my friends— was their case Had they found Helen and brought her here, only to fall into the trap which I did not doubt was prepared for them belowV And with this thought came a gleam of hope. It would bo difficult to take Michael unawares. If he should have only a suspicion, as he stood on the threshold, I had confidence in his judgment as well as his great strength. He would use both, and in that event, the Council might even now be within measurable distance of feeling the force of the law they had defied and derided. >

But as these thoughts and many others took shape amidst the confusion of my mind, my questionings received answer. The safe-like door of my prison, which so effectually shut off all outside sound, was thrown open. I sprang forward, eager to take advantage of any chance, but was met by a stem command to halt, an order which was enforced by the muzzle of a revolver.

The president's words were fulfilled, my friends had come to join me.

For outside stood a number of the Council's men./ Mrs. Latimer was with - them, looking a picture of despair and bewilderment, and her husband in the grasp of two of the men.

As for Michael, a glance at the almost, shapeless form tho men were carrying between them told me how his surprise and capture had been effected. It. was the trick which he himself had successfully tried upon" methe big cloak which had .suddenly enveloped and confused, the winding coils of stout rope which had made his herculean struggles ineffectual.

In silenco tho men brought their burden into the ' room, and m silence departed. It speaks volumes for their discipline that, although the proceeding must have had its ludicrous side to those who had less at stake than I had, there was no gibe, no smile even. The instant the door was shut ■ I had mv pocket knife out and' was cutting Michael's bonds, calling him by name as I did so, for I had a fear that they might have stunned or hurt him before they had secured him.

Yet as I was doing this, I turned to ask Latimer one question: "Did you see Helen?"

" No," ho answered. " She had just gone. Michael will tell you." ' And Michael, feeling his limbs free, stood up, and with my aid got clear of the voluminous wrapper.

He looked about him bewildered and half-blinded by the light. Then, to my amazement, he buret into a great roar of laughter.

His mirth (if mirth it ""could properly be called) was untimely, of course; but I know that even in a time -of greatest stress the ridiculous side of a thing will strike one, even as it had faintly struck me. Yet the outburst angered me.

" Confound it, man!" I exclaimed. " What on earth is there to laugh at?" "Nothing at all, excepting the result of my own blundering, my own stupidity," he said, sobered in an instant. " I beg your pardon, Travis, and yours, madam," turning to Mrs. Latimer, who had been led by her husband to the. chair in which Helen had sat. " This is what my clever plans have brought you to."

Then it was that Marie Latimer showed true womanly courage. There was even something of reproach in the look which lighted upon mo from those beautiful eyes which reminded me so of her sister's.

"You must not speak like that, Monsieur Kamensky," she said with spirit. " You have been doing all a brave man can do for your friend and for us. The odds against you have been too great, that is all." * ~

' I bowed to her in acknowledgment of the justice of the implied rebuke. Mrs. Latimer is right, Michael," I said, extending my hand, which ho grasped heartily. "I am not ingrate enough to have lost sight of all you have done, and you must forgive my petulance!" "No—no!" she said,, hastily. "I did not mean that. I can understand what you must, feel, Mr. Travis." "It is very kind of you to say so, Mrs. Latimer, especially since the failure of our plans has brought you into a position where anyone less bravo ' would .have jao thought for others*' ' * '■

"You must not think of us. We are no -worse off than we wero before, are we, Jack, dear?" and she affectionately, squeezed her husband's arm.

"Not a bit, darling," answered Latimer with a great show of cheerfulness. "Wo wore practically just as much in the power of the Council before Mr. Kamensky found us. And, after all, it is something of a. relief to know we shall soon be learning tho worst. Most likely the Council won't; be ablo to do anything very terrible to us now they have got us."

Mrs. Latimer gave a slight shudder. his was a matter she evidently did nob care to conjecture about, though sho still spoke brightly and bravely.

"We have not yet compared notes," slio said. "1 have no doubt Mr. Travis would like to hear about, our unconventional after- 1 noon call."

" Unconventional is certainly the right word," confirmed .Michael with a smile. We called at Northumberland Terrace, and were politely requested to wait until th<> princess was ready to receive us. It was an attempt to delay us, which did not answer on this occasion. I left., monsieur' and madam in the reception-room, and made an exploration of the house in spito of the efforts which were made to prevent mo. The princess herself at last met me, full of indignation at the intrusion, and ordered her servants to call in the police, but a reminder of certain secrets I knew connected with her political career showed her the. unwisdom of such a course. T. had already satisfied myself that neither tho Countess Helen nor Count Ivan was in the house. The princess declared they had left only ten minutes before our arrival, and at the orders of tho Council ; but she did not know where they were gone. With this information I was obliged] to be content, for 1 judged it better to return to this house immediately so wo took our leave."

"A stormy leave," remarked Mrs. Lati* mer.

" Yes; I will explain why it was so directly," said Michael. "We returned to this house. I rang as we agreed, and the door was opened. Tho hall was darkened, and the man who opened to us was cleverly dressed to represent Jgpu. That is why we entered without suspicion. You will guess what followed.- I was able to realise how helpless you must have felt when I captured you by tho same methods on Clifton Downs."

Briefly I then related my own experience during their absence.

"What. I cannot understand is how they entered the house without my hearing any suspicious sound* up to the very last," I said in conclusion.

"I ought to have given more thought to the empty house next door," answered Michael. " That is where wo should find, the key to the mystery. I have no doubt that ever since they found I had taken possession of this house, highly skilled workers, of whom they can command many, have been silently cutting ways, probably in the basement, so that wo might bo surprised at the opportune moment."

"They did it and timed it wonderfully well." I admitted with some grudging well," I admitted; with some grudging you think the Council really, sent for her and that man?"

"It is very likely. No doubt our every movement was watched, and the Council acted accordingly. But I have one piece of comfort for you, my friend. Whatever may become of ! us when we are brought before the Council I can promise you thisthat their j plan of marrying your Countess Helen jto that arch-scoundrel Count I van. will never bo carried out."

CHAPTER XXXV. > " HOW HELEN CAME BACK TO ME. I looked at Michael with some hope, but perhaps with more incredulity. "Yes, my friend," he asserted. "Directly I can get even a few words with tho Council or any member of it you will hear little more of Count Ivan or the Princess Sazonoff. Indeed, I would wager that the princess is even now preparing for immediate flight if she has . not already taken it,"

" What do you mean?" I asked.

"That our visit to No. 10, Northumberland Terrace, though a failure in one way, had a good result in another. This is the result."

'With a gesture which had something of triumph in it Michael took from his breast pocket an official-looking envelope, and as he held it before me I saw the directions were written in Russian characters.-

"You heard madam remark that our leavetaking of the princess was a stormy , one," Michael proceeded. " Just before we left a messenger brought this. The princess put it aside, with seeming carelessness, and I pretended to take no notice; but' a remembrance I had of the messenger and a suppressed agitation in the manner of the princess aroused in me a certain suspicion. I saw an opportunity of suddenly taking the' letter —of stealing it, if you like, and did not scruple to use it. The dismay of the princess, her rage, her threats, her entreaties, confirmed my idea; and I took the missive away with mc, even though I knew madam and monsieur hero were more than a little scandalised at my proceeding. But a brief examination of the contents as- I drove along in a car ehowed me my impulse was a lucky one, and fortunately our friends below, when they took away my revolver, did not taku away the letter."

With a gesture of satisfaction Michael unfolded a document covered with strange hieroglyphics.

"What on earth is it?" I asked, perplexed alike by thtf story and a- touch of unusual excitement about -Michael's manner.

Latimer and his wife were looking wonderingly expectant, too, so it Was evident! they had not been enlightened. " It is a cypher used by the Russian Embassy, and by good fortune I happen, to be able to read it, or sufficient of it," ho said, turning to each of us with an air! of triumph. "It proves that Count Ivan; and the princess have been playing a double part. -They have been bargaining with/ the Russian government to betray the secrets of the Council and the whole Tew rorist organisation."

I jumped to my feet in excitement.

"Are there no means by which we cat* let the Council know now, before Count* Ivan gets any inkling of this? Heaven knows what lie might do —and Helen practically in his power. Can you find' some way of rousing those below?"

"There are no means," Michael replied" regretfully. "I know the construction of this place too well to hop© that we can' attract attention by any means. But I do! not think we shall have to wait long. Since' you saw the president hero the Council is probably deliberating over our case now, and they ■ will deal with us quickly, for*, they must be aware that this place is under the observation of the police. Anct whichever of us may be taken down first? must toll the . Council of my discovery." "It must make so much differenceif

we can only let them know in time," I groaned, looking vainly around the sounddeadened walls for some means of making those outside hear.

" Yes, it will make a difference to you, to monsieur and madam, because the Coun- „

cil will and must admit the mistake o£> their policy, and they can have no proper reason for" further persecuting you. ,To me also it will make a difference, for however the Council may deal with mo I shall have the satisfaction of knowing thafe Count Ivan will get at least some fraction of his deserts.* Death is the penalty : for such treachery as I can prove here, and however he may strive to escape ife be overtaken." . v . {To he continued daily.) . .