war began."

"That's right, lad," Cross replied. "You get straight words from one;
and not only that, you get the words of another million behind me, who
feel as I do. But," he added, glancing across the room and lowering his
voice, "keep your eye on that artful devil, Fenn. He doesn't bear you
any particular good will."

"He wasn't exactly a hospitable gaoler," Julian reminiscently observed.

"I'm not speaking of that only," Cross went on. "There wasn't one of us
who didn't vote for squeezing that document out of you one way or the
other, and if it had been necessary to screw your neck off for it, I
don't know as one of us would have hesitated, for you were standing
between us and the big thing. But he and that little skunk Bright ain't
to be trusted, in my mind, and it seems to me they've got a down on you.
Fenn counted on being heart of this Council, for one thing, and there's
a matter of a young woman, eh, for another?"

"A young woman?" Julian repeated.

Cross nodded.

"The Russian young person--Miss Abbeway, she calls herself. Fenn's been
her lap-dog round here--takes her out to dine and that. It's just a word
of warning, that's all. You're new amongst us, Mr. Orden, and you might
think us all honest men. Well, we ain't; that's all there is to it."

Julian recovered from a momentary fit of astonishment.

"I am much obliged to you for your candour, Mr. Cross," he said.

"And never you mind about the 'Mr.', sir," the Northumbrian begged.

"Nor you about the `sir'," Julian retorted, with a smile.

"Middle stump," Cross acknowledged. "And since we are on the subject,
my new friend, let me tell you this. To feel perfectly happy about this
Council, there's just three as I should like to see out of it--Fenn,
Bright--and the young lady."

"Why the young lady?" Julian asked quickly.

"You might as well ask me, `Why Fenn and Bright?'" the other replied.
"I shouldn't make no answer. We're superstitious, you know, we north
country folk, and we are all for instincts. All I can say to you is that
there isn't one of those three I'd trust around the corner."

"Miss Abbeway is surely above suspicion?" Julian protested. "She has
given up a great position and devoted the greater part of her fortune
towards the causes which you and I and all of us are working for."

"There'd be plenty of work for her in Russia just now," Cross observed.

"No person of noble birth," Julian reminded him, "has the slightest
chance of w