is he?'

'That I dare not tell you!'

'Mr. Sanderson, it would be much better for your master and his son
that you should be more open with me. These half-confidences are
misleading. Has the son made any suggestion regarding his release?'

'Oh yes, but not the suggestion I have put before you. His latest
letter was to the effect that within six months or so there is to be
an election for governor. He proposes that a large sum of money shall
be used to influence this election so that a man pledged to pardon him
may sit in the governor's chair.'

'I see. And this sum of money is to be paid to the third person you
referred to?'

'Yes.'

'May I take it that this third person is the one to whom various sums
have been paid during the last five years in order to bribe the
governor to pardon the young man?'

Sanderson hesitated a moment before answering; in fact, he appeared so
torn between inclination and duty; anxious to give me whatever
information I deemed necessary, yet hemmed in by the instructions
with which his master had limited him, that at last I waved my hand
and said:--

'You need not reply, Mr. Sanderson. That third party is the crux of the
situation. I strongly suspect him of blackmail. If you would but name
him, and allow me to lure him to these rooms, I possess a little
private prison of my own into which I could thrust him, and I venture
to say that before he had passed a week in darkness, on bread and
water, we should have the truth about this business.'

Look you now the illogical nature of an Englishman! Poor old
Sanderson, who had come to me with a proposal to break the law of
America, seemed horror-stricken when I airily suggested the immuring
of a man in a dungeon here in England. He gazed at me in amazement,
then cast his eyes furtively about him, as if afraid a trap door would
drop beneath him, and land him in my private _oubliette_.

'Do not be alarmed, Mr. Sanderson, you are perfectly safe. You are
beginning at the wrong end of this business, and it seems to me five
years of contributions to this third party without any result might
have opened the eyes of even the most influential nobleman in England,
not to mention those of his faithful servant.'

'Indeed, sir,' said Sanderson, 'I must confess to you that I have long
had a suspicion of this third person, but my master has clung to him
as his only hope, and if this third person were interfered with, I may
tell you that he has deposit