why the grey-eyed master-crook, whom not a soul
suspected, was so eager to ingratiate himself with Edward Blumenfeld.
The motive was, however, not far to seek. Most men who are personal
friends of millionaires manage to extract some little point of
knowledge which, if used in the right way and with discretion, will
often result in considerable financial gain. Indeed, I have often
thought that around a millionaire there is spread a halo of prosperity
which invests all those who enter it and brings to them good fortune.

It was evident that the great financier regarded Rudolph Rayne as his
friend, for he promised to pay us a visit at Overstow in return.

"Remember what Mr. Blumenfeld has promised us, George!" said Rayne as
he turned to me merrily. "Make a note of it!" And the breezy,
easy-going man who at the moment was directing all sorts of crooked
business in many cities on the Continent sipped his glass of port with
the air of a connoisseur, as indeed he was.

That night, after I had gone to my room, Rayne suddenly entered and
began to speak to me in a loud tone concerning some letters he wished
to write early in the morning. Then, lowering his voice suddenly to a
whisper, he added: "I want you to be very nice to Mrs. Blumenfeld,
Hargreave. Unfortunately Lola seems to have taken a violent dislike to
her. Why, I don't know. So do your best to remedy what may result in a
_contretemps_."

Then again he spoke in his usual voice, and wishing me good night left
the room.

After he had gone I, full of wonder and apprehension, paced up and
down the fine old paneled chamber--for I had been placed in a wing in
the older part of the house which was evidently Jacobean. As an
unwilling assistant of that super-crook whose agents were at work in
the various cities of Europe carrying out the amazingly ingenious
plans which, with Vincent Duperre, he so carefully formulated in that
great old-world library of his at Overstow, I was constantly in peril,
for I felt by some inexplicable intuition that the police must, one
day or other, obtain sufficient evidence to arrest all of us, Lola
included.

I recollect that Superintendent Arthur Benton of Scotland Yard was
ever active in his inquiries concerning the great gang which Rayne
controlled.

Had it not been that I was now passionately in love with Lola--though
I dared not declare it openly--I should have left my queer appointment
long ago. As a matter of fact, I remained because