ittle time ago. I feel sure it's all nonsense; but still I
thought I had better tell Hamilton about it all the same.'

'I hope it's all nonsense,' Sarrasin said gravely. 'But we have thought
it right to arouse his Excellency.'

'Oh!' Rivers said anxiously, and slackened in his departure, 'you have
got some news of your own?'

'We have got some news of our own, Mr. Rivers, and we have got some
suspicions of our own. Some of us have our eyes, others of us have our
ears. Others of us get telegrams--and act on them at once.' This was a
thrash deeper even than its author intended.

'You don't really expect that anything is going to happen to-night?'

'I am too old a soldier to expect anything. I keep awake and wait until
it comes.'

'But, Mr. Sarrasin--I beg pardon, Colonel Sarrasin----'

'Captain Sarrasin, if you please.'

'I beg your pardon, Captain Sarrasin. Do you really think there is any
plot against--against--his Excellency?' Rivers had hesitated for a
moment. He hated to call Ericson either 'his Excellency' or 'the
Dictator.' But just now he wanted above all other things to conciliate
Sarrasin, and if possible get him on his side, in case there should come
to be a question concerning the time of the delayed warning.

'I believe it is pretty likely, sir.'

'In this house?'

'In this very house.'

'But, good God! that can't be. Why don't we tell Sir Rupert?'

'Why didn't you tell Sir Rupert?'

'Because I was told not to alarm him for nothing.'

'Exactly; we don't want to alarm him for nothing. We think that we
three--the Dictator, Hamilton, and I--we can manage this little business
for ourselves. Not one of the three of us that hasn't been in many a
worse corner alone before, and now there _are_ three of us--don't you
see?'

'Can't I help?'

'Well, I think if I were you I'd just keep awake,' Sarrasin said. 'Odd
sorts of things may happen. One never knows. Hush! I think I hear our
friends. Will you stay and talk with them?'

'No,' said Rivers emphatically; and he left the room straightway, going
in the opposite direction from the Dictator's room, and turning into the
other corridor before he could have been seen by anyone coming into the
corridor where the Dictator and Hamilton and Sarrasin were lodged.

Soame Rivers went back to his room, and sat there and waited and
watched. His thoughts were far from enviable. He was in the mood of a
man who, from being an utter sceptic, or at least Agnostic,