fists he walked
to the other side of the room and returned. He was himself again.

"Sir James, I will not waste your time by saying that I am sorry.
Only an hour ago I met Von Behrling in a little restaurant in the
city, and gave him twenty thousand pounds for that envelope."

"You paid him the money," the Minister remarked slowly, "without
opening the envelope."

Bellamy admitted it.

"In such transactions as these," he declared, "great risks are
almost inevitable. I took what must seem to you now to be an absurd
risk. To tell you the honest truth, sir, and I have had experience
in these things, I thought it no risk at all when I handed over the
money. Von Behrling was there in disguise. The men with whom he
came to this country are furious with him. To all appearance, he
seemed to have broken with them absolutely. Even now--

"Well?"

"Even now," Bellamy said slowly, with his eyes fixed upon the wall
of the room, and a dawning light growing stronger every moment in
his face, "even now I believe that Von Behrling made a mistake. An
envelope such as this had been arranged for him to show the others
or leave at the Austrian Embassy in case of emergency. He had it
with him in his pocket-book. He even told me so. God in Heaven,
he gave me the wrong one!"

The Minister glanced once more at the clock.

"In that case," he said, "perhaps he would not go to the Embassy
to-night, especially if he was in disguise. You may still be able
to find him and repair the error.

"I will try," answered Bellamy. "Thank Heaven!" he added, with a
sudden gleam of satisfaction, "my watchers are still dogging his
footsteps. I can find out before morning where he went when he
left our rendezvous. There is another way, too. Mademoiselle--this
man Von Behrling believed that she was leaving the country
with him. She was to have had a message within the next few hours."

The Minister nodded thoughtfully.

"Bellamy, I have been your friend and you have done us good service
often. The Secret Service estimates, as you know, are above
supervision, but twenty thousand pounds is a great deal of money to
have paid for this."

He touched the sheets of blank paper with his forefinger. Bellamy's
teeth were clenched.

"The money shall be returned, sir.

"Do not misunderstand me," Sir James went on, speaking a little more
kindly. "The money, after all, in comparison with what it was
destined to purchase, is nothing. We m