Karetsky," Chalmers intervened softly.

"You believe that she is our enemy?" Nigel asked, with a look of trouble
in his eyes.

"She is Immelan's friend," Chalmers reminded him.

"There was a man named Atcheson," Jesson began quietly--

Nigel nodded.

"He was one of the men my uncle sent out. The first one was stabbed in
Petrograd. Jim Atcheson was poisoned and died in Berlin."

"There was rather a scare in a certain quarter about Atcheson," Jesson
observed. "He was supposed to have got a report through to the late Lord
Dorminster."

"He got it through all right," Nigel replied. "My uncle was busy
decoding it, seated in this room, at that table, when he died."

"His death was very sudden," Jesson ventured.

"I have not the faintest doubt but that he was murdered," Nigel
declared. "The document upon which he was working disappeared entirely
except for one sheet."

"You have that one sheet?" Jesson asked eagerly.

Nigel produced it from his pocketbook, smoothed it cut, and laid it upon
the table.

"There are two things worth noticing here," he pointed out. "The first
is that the actual name of a town in Russia is given, and a telephone
number in London. Kroten I have looked up on the map. It seems to be an
unimportant place in a very desolate region. The telephone number is
Oscar Immelan's."

"That is interesting, though not surprising," Jesson declared. "Immelan,
as you of course know, is one of your enemies, one of those who are
working in this country for purposes of his own. But as regards Kroten,
may I ask where you obtained your information about the place?"

Nigel dragged down the atlas and showed them the paragraph. Jesson read
it with a faint smile upon his lips.

"I fancy," he remarked, "that this is a little out of date. I should
like, if you have no objection, to start for Kroten this week."

"Good heavens! Why?" Nigel exclaimed.

"I can scarcely answer that question," Jesson said. "I am like a man
with a puzzle board and a heap of loose pieces. Kroten is one of those
pieces, but I haven't commenced the fitting-in process yet. Here," he
said, "is as much as I can tell you about it. There are three cities,
situated in different countries in the world, which are each in their
way connected with the danger which is brewing for this country. I have
heard them described as the three secret cities. One is in Germany. I
have been there at the risk of my life, and I came away simply puzzled.
Krot