plied the girl. "As I told you before,
no one sent me. I came here entirely of my own accord, and I shall
endeavour to make clear to you exactly why I came. Some time ago there
occurred in this city a terrific explosion--"

"Where? When?" exclaimed the old man, placing his hands on the arms of
his chair, as if he would rise to his feet.

"Sit where you are," commanded Jennie firmly, "and I shall tell you all
I can about it. The Government, for reasons of its own, desires to keep
the fact of this explosion a secret, and thus very few people outside
of official circles know anything about it. I am trying to discover the
cause of that disaster."

"Are you--are you working on behalf of the Government?" asked the old
man eagerly, a tremor of fear in his quavering voice.

"No. I am conducting my investigations quite independently of the
Government."

"But why? But why? That is what I don't understand."

"I would very much rather not answer that question."

"But that question--everything is involved in that question. I must know
why you are here. If you are not in the employ of the Government, in
whose employ are you?"

"If I tell you," said Jennie with some hesitation, "will you keep what I
say a secret?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" cried the scientist impatiently.

"Well, I am in the service of a London daily newspaper."

"I see, I see; and they have sent you here to publish broadcast over
the world all you can find out of my doings. I knew you were a spy the
moment I saw you. I should never have let you in."

"My dear sir, the London paper is not even aware of your existence. They
have not sent me to you at all. They have sent me to learn, if possible,
the cause of the explosion I spoke of. I took some of the _debris_ to
Herr Feltz to analyze it, and he said he had never seen gold, iron,
feldspar, and all that, reduced to such fine, impalpable grains as was
the case with the sample I left with him. I then asked him who in Vienna
knew most about explosives, and he gave me your address. That is why I
am here."

"But the explosion--you have not told me when and where it occurred!"

"That, as I have said, is a Government secret."

"But you stated you are not in the Government employ, therefore it can
be no breach of confidence if you let me have full particulars."

"I suppose not. Very well, then, the explosion occurred after midnight
on the seventeenth in the vault of the Treasury."

The old man, in spite of the pro