ht places, and I have a notion, my dear
chap, that I am physically a good deal stronger than you, or than most
men, for that matter, and this may come to be a question of strength,
and of disarming and holding on to a fellow when once you have caught
him.'

'You are right,' Hamilton said submissively but disappointed. 'Of
course, I ought to have thought of _that_. I have plenty of nerve, but I
know I am not half as strong as you. All right, Sarrasin, you shall do
the trick this time.'

'It will very likely turn out to be nothing at all,' Sarrasin said, by
way of soothing the young man's sensibilities; 'but even if we have to
look a little foolish in Ericson's eyes to-morrow we shan't much mind.'

'I'll go and rouse him up. I'll bring him along here. He won't enjoy
being disturbed, but we can't help that.'

'Better be disturbed by you than by--some other,' Sarrasin said grimly.

The tone in which he answered, and the words and the grimness of his
face, impressed Hamilton somehow with a new and keener sense of the
seriousness of the occasion.

'Tread lightly,' Sarrasin said, 'speak in low tones, but for your life
not in a whisper--a whisper travels far. Keep your eyes about you, and
find out, if you can, who are stirring. I am going to look in on Mrs.
Sarrasin's room for a moment, and I shall keep my eyes about me, I can
tell you. The more people we have awake and on the alert, the
better--always provided that they are people whose nerves we can trust.
As I tell you, Hamilton, I can trust the nerves of Mrs. Sarrasin. I have
told her to be on the watch--and she will be.'

'I am sure--I am sure,' said Hamilton; and he cut short the encomium by
hurrying on his way to the Dictator's room.

Sarrasin left Hamilton's room and went for a moment or two to let Mrs.
Sarrasin know how things were going. He had left Hamilton's room door
half open. When he was coming out of his wife's room he heard the slow,
cautious step of a man in the corridor on which Hamilton's room opened,
and which was at right angles with that on which Mrs. Sarrasin was
lodged. Could it be Hamilton coming back without having roused the
Dictator? Just as he turned into that corridor he saw someone look into
Hamilton's doorway, push the door farther apart, and then enter the
room. Sarrasin quickly glided into the room after him; the man turned
round--and Sarrasin found himself confronted by Soame Rivers.

'Hello!' Rivers said, with his usual artificiali