and that you
should have come across one another."

"Sort of bond between us, eh?" Mr. Coulson replied. "She seemed a very
charming young lady. Cut above Fynes, I should think."

The detective smiled.

"All your American young ladies who come over here are charming," he
said. "Goodbye, Mr. Coulson, and many thanks!"

The Inspector passed out, and the man whom he had come to visit, after a
moment's hesitation, resumed his seat.

"These aren't American methods," he muttered to himself. "I don't
understand them. That man Jacks is either a simpleton or he is too
cunning for me."

He crossed to a writing table and scribbled an unnecessary note,
addressing it to a firm in the city. Then he rang for a messenger boy
and handed it to him for delivery. A few minutes afterwards he strolled
out into the hall. The boy was in the act of handing the note to one of
the head porters, who carefully copied the address. Mr. Coulson returned
to the smoking room, whistling softly to himself.

CHAPTER XI. A COMMISSION

Mr. Robert Blaine-Harvey, American Ambassador and Plenipotentiary
Extraordinary to England, was a man of great culture, surprising
personal gifts, and with a diplomatic instinct which amounted almost to
genius. And yet there were times when he was puzzled. For at least half
an hour he had been sitting in his great library, looking across the
Park, and trying to make up his mind on a very important matter. It
seemed to him that he was face to face with what amounted almost to a
crisis in his career. His two years at the Court of St. James had been
pleasant and uneventful enough. The small questions which had presented
themselves for adjustment between the two countries were, after all, of
no particular importance and were easily arranged. The days seemed to
have gone by for that over-strained sensitiveness which was continually
giving rise to senseless bickerings, when every trilling breeze seemed
to fan the smouldering fires of jealousy. The two great English-speaking
nations appeared finally to have realized the absolute folly of
continual disputes between countries whose destiny and ideals were so
completely in accord and whose interests were, in the main, identical. A
period of absolute friendliness had ensued. And now there had come this
little cloud. It was small enough at present, but Mr. Harvey was not the
one to overlook its sinister possibilities. Two citizens of his country
had been barbarously murdered