n fix up
a shakedown for you in one of the rooms behind."

"I thank you," Mr. Sabin said, sitting down in a high-backed wooden
chair; "I decline to move until the charge against me is properly
explained."

"There is no one here to do it just now," the man answered. "Better make
yourself comfortable for a bit."

"You detain me here, then," Mr. Sabin said, "without even a sight of
your warrant or any intimation as to the charge against me?"

"Oh, the chief'll fix all that," the man answered. "Don't you worry."

Mr. Sabin smiled.

In a magnificently furnished apartment somewhere in the neighbourhood of
Fifth Avenue a small party of men were seated round a card table piled
with chips and rolls of bills. On the sideboard there was a great
collection of empty bottles, spirit decanters and Vichy syphons. Mr.
Horser was helping himself to brandy and water with one hand and holding
himself up with the other. There was a knock at the door.

A man who was still playing looked up. He was about fifty years of age,
clean shaven, with vacuous eyes and a weak mouth. He was the host of the
party.

"Come in!" he shouted.

A young man entered in a long black overcoat and soft hat. He looked
about him without surprise, but he seemed to note Mr. Horser's presence
with some concern. The man at the table threw down his cards.

"What the devil do you want, Smith?"

"An important despatch from Washington has just arrived, sir. I have
brought it up with the codebook."

"From Washington at this time of the night," he exclaimed thickly. "Come
in here, Smith."

He raised the curtains leading into a small anteroom, and turned up the
electric light. His clerk laid the message down on the table before him.

"Here is the despatch, Mr. Mace," he said, "and here is the
translation."

"English Ambassador demands immediate explanation of arrest of Duke
Souspennier at Waldorf to-night. Reply immediately what charge and
evidence. Souspennier naturalised Englishman."

Mr. Mace sprang to his feet with an oath. He threw aside the curtain
which shielded the room from the larger apartment.

"Horser, come here, you damned fool!"

Horser, with a stream of magnificent invectives, obeyed the summons. His
host pointed to the message.

"Read that!"

Mr. Horser read and his face grew even more repulsive. A dull purple
flush suffused his cheeks, his eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his
forehead stood out like cords. He leaned for several m