ight even count it a fair
risk if it was lost."

"It shall not be lost," Bellamy promised. "If Von Behrling has
played the traitor to us, then he will go back to his country. In
that case, I will have the money from him without a doubt. If, on
the other hand, he was honest to us and a traitor to his country,
as I firmly believe, it may not yet be too late."

"Let us hope not," Sir James declared. "Bellamy," he continued, a
note of agitation trembling in his tone, "I need not tell you, I
am sure, how important this matter is. You work like a mole in the
dark, yet you have brains,--you understand. Let me tell you how
things are with us. A certain amount of confidence is due to you,
if to any one. I may tell you that at the Cabinet Council to-day a
very serious tone prevailed. We do not understand in the least the
attitude of several of the European Powers. It can be understood
only under certain assumptions. A note of ours sent through the
Ambassador to Vienna has remained unanswered for two days. The
German Ambassador has left unexpectedly for Berlin on urgent
business. We have just heard, too, that a secret mission from
Russia left St. Petersburg last night for Paris. Side by side with
all this," Sir James continued, "the Czar is trying to evade his
promised visit here. The note we have received speaks of his
health. Well, we know all about that. We know, I may tell you,
that his health has never been better than at the present moment."

"It all means one thing and one thing only," Bellamy affirmed. "In
Vienna and Berlin to-day they look at an Englishman and smile. Even
the man in the street seems to know what is coming."

Sir James leaned a little back in his seat. His hands were tightly
clenched, and there was a fierce light in his hollow eyes. Those
who were intimate with him knew that he had aged many years during
the last few weeks.

"The cruel part is," he said softly, "that it should have come in
my administration, when for ten years I have prayed from the
Opposition benches for the one thing which would have made us safe
to-day."

"An army," murmured Bellamy.

"The days are coming," Sir James continued, "when those who prated
of militarism and the security of our island walls will see with
their own eyes the ruin they have brought upon us. Secretly we are
mobilizing all that we have to mobilize," he added, with a little
sigh. "At the very best, however, our position is pitiful.