ce flung himself into a chair.

"And now, Mr. Vard," went on Pachmann, sitting down very deliberately
face to face with the inventor, "our answer is ready for you."

"Very well; let me have it," snapped Vard, twitching with impatience.

"We refuse to accept your conditions."

For an instant there was silence, then Vard leaped to his feet, his face
livid.

"So you have been playing with me!" he cried. "Well, I suspected it! And
you shall pay! Oh, you shall pay!" and he turned blindly to the door.

"One moment!" called Pachmann, and his voice had in it a ring of command
which Vard had never heard before. "Sit down. I have still something to
say."

"I do not care to hear it."

"That is nothing to me. You _shall_ hear it!"

With a glance of contempt, Vard strode to the door and turned the knob;
but it did not open. He wrenched at it madly, but it held fast. In two
strides he confronted Pachmann.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

"The meaning," replied the Admiral sternly, "is that you are a prisoner
here until I choose to release you. Now will you sit down?"

Vard stood for a moment, his face deadly white, his hands clasping and
unclasping convulsively, staring down into Pachmann's leering eyes;
then he went slowly back to his chair.

"That is right," said the German. "It will be best to take this calmly.
In the first place, I want you to realise that you are wholly in my
power. Nothing that occurs in this house will ever be known to the
outside world. If you should fail to reappear, there will be no one to
trace you. You will remember that we have your daughter also. And I say
to you in all seriousness, and as emphatically as I can, that neither
your life nor your daughter's life will cause me to turn aside or even
to hesitate. I would kill you with my own hands, and then your
daughter--yes, and a thousand like you, if need be--rather than that
this chance should be lost to Germany. I say to you, then, that either
you will consent to my proposal, or both you and your daughter will
suffer the utmost consequence."

Vard's eyes had never left the speaker's face, nor had any colour come
back into his own. But at the last words he laughed contemptuously.

"It is useless," he sneered. "I am not one to be frightened."

"I am not trying to frighten you--I warn you."

"Your warning is useless. I reply to you in all seriousness that neither
my life, nor my daughter's life--no, nor the lives of a thous