e into
the mouthpiece by his head with an expressionless face.

"He's practically fawned upon by a bunch of important officials and
several high ranking army officers. Suspecting what I do, I think he's
got hold of a devil of a lot of power."

Jamison scowled in a lordly fashion upon a mere pedestrian who
threatened to impede the movement of the taxicab by making it run over
him.

* * * * *

"Ortiz," said Bell quietly, "told me he'd been poisoned, and treason
asked as the price of the antidote. I've heard that the Brazilian
Minister for Foreign Affairs went insane six months ago. I heard,
also, that it was homicidal mania--murder madness. And I'm wondering
if these people who fawn upon Ribiera aren't paying a price
for--well--antidotes, or their equivalent. The Minister for Foreign
Affairs may have refused."

"You're improving," said Jamison dryly. The taxi rounded a curve and
a vista of sea and sand and royal palms spread out before it. "Yes,
you're improving. But Ortiz spoke of Ribiera only as a deputy of The
Master. Who is The Master?"

"God knows," said Bell. He stared languidly out of the window, for all
the world to see. A tourist, regarding the boasted beauties of the
Biera Mar.

"A deputy," said Jamison without emotion, "of some unknown person
called The Master poisoned Ortiz in Buenos Aires. And Ortiz was an
important man in the Argentine. Ribiera is merely the deputy of that
same unknown Master in Rio, and he has generals and state presidents
and the big politicians paying court to him. If deputies in two
countries that we know of have so much power, how much power has The
Master?"

* * * * *

Silence. The taxi chugged steadily past unnoticed beauties and
colorings. Rio is really one of the most beautiful cities in the
world.

"It's like this," said Jamison jerkily. "Seven Service men vanish and
one goes mad. You get two tips that the fate of Ortiz is the fate of
the seven men--eight, in fact. We find that two men dispense a certain
ghastly poison in two certain cities, at the orders of a man they call
The Master. We find that those two men wield an astounding lot of
power, and we know they're only deputies, only subordinates of the
Master. We know, also, that the Service men vanished all over the
whole continent, not in just those two cities. How many deputies has
The Master? What's it all about? He wanted treason of Ortiz, we know.