a blind alley at that end of the
case, I started in at the other end of it to find the one lady to whom
naturally the chief conspirator would turn for help in the situation
that confronted him when he ran away from Washington. And I found
her--both of her in fact."

"Both of her! Then there are two women involved?"

"No, only one; but which one of two suspects she is I can't for the life
of me decide. I know who she is, and yet I don't know. I'll come to that
part of it in a minute or two. I haven't told you the name of the head
devil of the whole intrigue yet, have I? You've met him, I imagine. At
any rate you surely have heard of him.

"You know him, or else you surely know of him, as the Hon. Sidney
Bertram Goldsborough, of London, England, and Shanghai, China."

"Goodness gracious me!" In her astonishment Miss Smith had recourse to
an essentially feminine exclamation. "Why, that does bring it close to
home! Why, he is among the persons invited to my cousin's house
to-morrow night. I remember seeing his name on the invitation list.
That's why you asked me about her party a while ago. My cousin met him
somewhere and liked him. I've never seen him, but I've heard about him.
A big mining engineer, isn't he?"

"A big international crook, posing as a mining engineer and ostensibly
in this country to finance some important Korean concessions--that's
what he is. His real name is Geltmann. Here's his pedigree in a
nutshell: Born in Russia of mixed German and Swiss parentage. Educated
in England, where he acquired his accent and the monocle habit.
Perfected himself in scoundrelism in the competent finishing schools of
the Far East. Speaks half a dozen languages, including Chinese and
Japanese. Carries gilt-edged credentials made in the Orient. That,
briefly, is your Hon. Mr. Sidney Bertram Goldsborough, when you undress
him. He was officially suspected of being something other than what he
claimed to be, even before Westerfeltner divulged his name. In fact, he
fell under suspicion shortly after he turned up in Paris in January of
this year, he having obtained a passport for France on the strength of
his credentials and on the representation that he wanted to go abroad to
interest European financiers in that high-sounding Korean development
scheme of his--which, by the way, is purely imaginary. He hung about
Paris for three months. How he found out about the document which the
army officer was bringing home, and how he fo