t? He has need of you; or thinks he has, which is the same thing; and
I can smooth the way. There will be risks."

"I know all about that," I interrupted impatiently. "And I shall go with
you, of course!"

"Of course," he acquiesced phlegmatically. But, as he spoke, he held out
his big blunt hand; and I gripped it hard.

CHAPTER XXXII

BACK TO RUSSIA ONCE MORE

Two days later I saw Lord Southbourne, and resigned my position as a
member of his staff. I felt myself mean in one way, when I thought of
how he had backed me right through that murder business,--and before it,
when he set Freeman on my track.

He showed neither surprise nor annoyance; in fact he seemed, if
anything, more nonchalant than usual.

"Well, of course you know your own affairs best. I haven't any use for
men who cultivate interests outside their work; and you've done the
straight thing in resigning now that you 'here a duty divided do
perceive,' as I heard a man say the other day."

"Von Eckhardt!" I exclaimed.

"Guessed it first time," he drawled. "Could any one else in this world
garble quotations so horribly? If he would only give 'em in German they
would be more endurable, but he insists on exhibiting his English. By
the way, he has relinquished his vendetta."

"That on Carson's account?"

"Yes, he believes the murderer, or murderers, must have been wiped out
in that affair where you came to grief so signally. He had heard about
it before he saw your stuff, though no official account was allowed to
get through; and he gave me some rather interesting information, quite
gratuitously."

"Does it concern me, or--any one I know?" I asked, steadying my voice
with an effort.

"Well, not precisely; since you only know the lady by repute, and by her
portrait."

I remembered that Von Eckhardt was the one person besides myself who was
aware of Anne's identity, which I had betrayed to him in that one
unguarded moment at Berlin, for which I had reproached myself ever
since. True, before I parted from him, I had exacted a promise that he
would never reveal the fact that he knew her English name; never mention
it to any one. But he was an erratic and forgetful individual; he might
have let the truth out to Southbourne, but the latter's face, as I
watched it, revealed nothing.

"Oh, that mysterious and interesting individual," I said indifferently.
"Do you mind telling what he said about her?"

"Not at all. It appears that he admires