oke. 'I reckon I can put you wise on that,
gentlemen,' he said. 'I saw her no later than yesterday. She is a
lovely lady. She happens also to be the owner of this house.'

Both Sandy and I began to laugh. It was too comic to have stumbled
across Europe and lighted on the very headquarters of the puzzle we had
set out to unriddle.

But Blenkiron did not laugh. At the mention of Hilda von Einem he had
suddenly become very solemn, and the sight of his face pulled me up
short.

'I don't like it, gentlemen,' he said. 'I would rather you had
mentioned any other name on God's earth. I haven't been long in this
city, but I have been long enough to size up the various political
bosses. They haven't much to them. I reckon they wouldn't stand up
against what we could show them in the U-nited States. But I have met
the Frau von Einem, and that lady's a very different proposition. The
man that will understand her has got to take a biggish size in hats.'

'Who is she?' I asked.

'Why, that is just what I can't tell you. She was a great excavator of
Babylonish and Hittite ruins, and she married a diplomat who went to
glory three years back. It isn't what she has been, but what she is,
and that's a mighty clever woman.'

Blenkiron's respect did not depress me. I felt as if at last we had
got our job narrowed to a decent compass, for I had hated casting about
in the dark. I asked where she lived.

'That I don't know,' said Blenkiron. 'You won't find people unduly
anxious to gratify your natural curiosity about Frau von Einem.'

'I can find that out,' said Sandy. 'That's the advantage of having a
push like mine. Meantime, I've got to clear, for my day's work isn't
finished. Dick, you and Peter must go to bed at once.' 'Why?' I asked
in amazement. Sandy spoke like a medical adviser.

'Because I want your clothes--the things you've got on now. I'll take
them off with me and you'll never see them again.'

'You've a queer taste in souvenirs,' I said.

'Say rather the Turkish police. The current in the Bosporus is pretty
strong, and these sad relics of two misguided Dutchmen will be washed
up tomorrow about Seraglio Point. In this game you must drop the
curtain neat and pat at the end of each Scene, if you don't want
trouble later with the missing heir and the family lawyer.'

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I Move in Good Society

I walked out of that house next morning with Blenkiron's arm in mine, a
differen