All
these great financiers fatten upon the ruin of honest folk."

"I hardly think that such is the case with Senor De Gex," he remarked.
"But you are English, and you probably know more than myself
concerning his career."

"Nobody in England knows much about him," was my reply. "We only know
that he is immensely wealthy, and that his riches are daily increased
by the various ventures which he finances."

"He is a great support to our Ministry of Finance," declared the Chief
of Police. "It was Count Chamartin who first interested him in Spain,
I believe. In any case, they combined to finance a number of
industrial enterprises, including the great Guadajoz Copper Mine
which must, in itself, have brought them both a fortune."

"You said that the count is dead," I remarked.

"Yes. He died quite suddenly last year. He was one of the most popular
men at Court, and his tragic death caused a great sensation. He was
taken ill in the Sud Express while travelling from Madrid to keep an
appointment with Senor De Gex in Paris, and though he was taken from
the train on its arrival at San Sebastian and conveyed to the
hospital, he died a few moments after reaching there. He had a weak
heart, and had consulted two doctors only a month previously. They had
ordered him a complete rest and change, but, contrary to their advice,
he continued attending to his affairs--with fatal result."

"And the countess?"

"Ah! Poor lady, she was beside herself with grief. She was his second
wife. His first was the daughter of an Englishman who lived in Madrid.
The present countess is the daughter of the Marquis Avellanosa of
Algeciras, and they were a most devoted pair. She now lives in Segovia
in comparative seclusion. The count's untimely end was a great loss to
Spain."

It was news to me that Oswald De Gex was in Madrid with his agent
Suzor in connexion with the new railway scheme. Indeed, what I had
just been told was all amazing, and showed De Gex to be a man of
outstanding genius. The mystery-man of Europe took good care to inform
himself of any person who watched his movements, or sought to inquire
into his business. It certainly was a master-stroke to pretend fear of
assassination, and compel the police to act as his personal guard. By
that means he had learnt that Hambledon and myself were in Madrid on
purpose to discover what we could, hence he had hired the assassin
Despujol to set that dastardly trap for me.

Again it was upon th