at that little assembly
would ever entertain suspicion that, between them, they could
practically dictate to the money-market of Europe.

The Italian seated next to him was the Commendatore Rudolphe Cusani,
head of the wealthy banking firm of Montemartini of Rome, which ranked
next to the Bank of Italy. Of the remaining two, one was a Greek from
Smyrna, and the other, a rather well-dressed man with longish grey hair,
Josef Frohnmeyer of Hamburg, a name also to conjure with in the
financial world.

The impatient Italian was urging Goslin to explain why the meeting had
been so hastily summoned when, without warning, the door opened and a
tall, distinguished man, with carefully trained grey moustache, and
wearing a heavy travelling ulster, entered.

"Ah, my dear Baron!" cried the Italian, jumping from his chair and
taking the new-comer's hand, "we were waiting for you." And he drew a
chair next to his.

The man addressed tossed his soft felt travelling hat aside, saying,
"The 'wire' reached me at a country house outside Vienna, where I was
visiting. But I came instantly." And he seated himself, while the chair
at the head of the table was taken by the stout Frenchman.

"Messieurs," Goslin commenced, and--speaking in French--began
apologising at being compelled to call them together so soon after their
last meeting. "The matter, however, is of such urgency," he went on,
"that this conference is absolutely necessary. I am here in Sir Henry's
place, with a statement from him--an alarming statement. Our enemies
have unfortunately triumphed."

"What do you mean?" cried the Italian, starting to his feet.

"Simply this. Poor Sir Henry has been the victim of treachery.--Those
papers which you, my dear Volkonski, brought to me in secret at
Glencardine a month ago have been stolen!"

"Stolen!" gasped the shabby old man, his grey eyes starting from his
head; "stolen! _Dieu!_ Think what that means to us--to me--to my house!
They will be sold to the Ministry of Finance in Petersburg, and I shall
be ruined--ruined!"

"Not only you will be ruined!" remarked the man from Hamburg, "but our
control of the market will be at an end."

"And together we lose over three million roubles," said Goslin in as
quiet a voice as he could assume.

The six men--those men who dealt in millions, men whose names, every one
of them, were as household words on the various Bourses of Europe and in
banking circles, men who lent money to reigning