nd with some effort regained his
self-control.

'I have done my errand badly,' he wailed. 'I don't know what I have
said that has led you to so accurate a statement of the real
situation, but I have been a blundering fool. God forgive me, when so
much depended on my making no mistake.'

'Don't let that trouble you,' I replied; 'nothing you said gave me the
slightest clue.'

'You called me a liar,' he continued, 'and that is a hard word from
one man to another, but I would not lie for myself, and when I do it
for one I revere and respect, my only regret is that I have done it
without avail.'

'My dear sir,' I assured him, 'the fault is not with yourself at all.
You were simply attempting the impossible. Stripped and bare, your
proposal amounts to this. I am to betake myself to the United States,
and there commit a crime, or a series of crimes, in bribing sworn
officials to turn traitor to their duty and permit a convict to
escape.'

'You put it very harshly, sir. You must admit that, especially in new
countries, there is lawlessness within the law as well as outside of
it. The real criminals in the robbery of the railway train escaped; my
young master, poor fellow, was caught. His father, one of the proudest
men in England, has grown prematurely old under the burden of this
terrible dishonour. He is broken-hearted, and a dying man, yet he
presents an impassive front to the world, with all the ancient courage
of his race. My young master is an only son, and failing his
appearance, should his father die, title and estate will pass to
strangers. Our helplessness in this situation adds to its horror. We
dare not make any public move. My old master is one with such
influence among the governing class of this country, of which he has
long been a member, that the average Englishman, if his name were
mentioned, would think his power limitless. Yet that power he dare not
exert to save his own son from a felon's life and death. However much
he or another may suffer, publicity must be avoided, and this is a
secret which cannot safely be shared with more than those who know it
now.'

'How many know it?'

'In this country, three persons. In an American prison, one.'

'Have you kept up communication with the young man?'

'Oh, yes.'

'Direct?'

'No; through a third person. My young master has implored his father
not to write to him direct.'

'This go-between, as we may call him, is the third person in the
secret? Who