st men in England, a landlord who owned half London and had estates
in almost every county. If ever there was a victim who was in a position
to be handsomely bled, here was one.

The Spanish wife was now dead, but an heir had been born to the Duke of
Ambury before the death, and the whole question of succession was
affected by the threatened disclosure. All the facts of the case were in
Poltavo's possession; they were written in this curiously uneducated
hand which filled the pages of the letters now spread upon the table in
front of him. The marriage certificate had been supplied, and a copy of
the death certificate had also been obligingly extracted by a peccant
servant, and matters were now so far advanced that Poltavo had received,
through the Agony column of the _Times_, a reply to the demand he had
sent to his victim.

That reply had been very favourable; there had been no suggestion of
lawyers; no hint of any intervention on the part of the police. Ambury
was willing to be bled, willing indeed, so the agony advertisement
indicated to Poltavo, to make any financial sacrifice in order to save
the honour of his house.

It was only a question of terms now. Poltavo had decided upon fifty
thousand pounds. That sum would be sufficient to enable him to clear out
of England and to enjoy life as he best loved it, without the necessity
for taking any further risks. With Doris Gray removed from his hands,
with the approval of society already palling upon him, he thirsted for
new fields and new adventures. The fifty thousand seemed now within his
grasp. He should, by his agreement with Farrington, hand two-thirds of
that sum to his employer, but even the possibility of his doing this
never for one moment occurred to him.

Farrington, so he told himself, a man in hiding, powerless and in
Poltavo's hands practically, could not strike back at him; the cards
were all in favour of the Count. He had already received some ten
thousand pounds as a result of his work in London, and he had frantic
and ominous letters from Dr. Fall demanding that the "house" share
should be forwarded without delay. These demands Poltavo had treated
with contempt. He felt master of the situation, inasmuch that he had
placed the major portion of the balance of money in hand, other than
that which had been actually supplied by Farrington, to his own credit
in a Paris bank. He was prepared for all eventualities, and here he was
promised the choicest of