anyone can have for shadowing my
movements."

"I regard it as mere chance. I imagine that our fellow-passenger in the
train caught the name of Hussein-ul-Mulk in our conversation, and this
decided him to shadow your movements, by means of the confederate who
awaited his arrival at the station. As it happened, they simply hit upon
the wrong person. It might have paid them much better to follow me. The
outcome of the blunder is that I am in a fair way towards ascertaining
all I want to know about them, whereas, up to the present, they do not
even suspect my existence as an active agent in the affair."

"Well, now, in what way can I help you regarding Hussein-ul-Mulk?"

"Can you introduce me to him?"

"In what capacity?"

Brett reflected for a moment before replying.

"It would best suit my purpose if I met him as a political sympathiser."

Gaultier evidently did not like the idea. Foreign Office messengers do
not care to be associated with politics in any shape or form.

"Is there no other way?" he asked dubiously.

"Plenty," said Brett. "I might pose as a friend of yours interested in
Turkish carpets, or coffee, or cigarettes, but for the purpose of my
inquiry it would be well to jump preliminaries at once and make this
chance acquaintance under the guise of a wire-puller."

"All right," said Gaultier. "I don't see that it matters much to me, and
the letter you have in your possession from the Under-Secretary is
sufficient warrant for me to give you any assistance that lies in my
power."

He glanced at his watch. "It is just about time for _dejeuner_," he
continued. "What do you say if we drive to the Rue Barbette at once?"

The barrister assented, and they were soon crossing Paris with the
superb disregard for other people's feelings that characterises the
local cab-driver.

"By the way," inquired Gaultier, "have you learned anything else since
your arrival?"

"Only this--it was not our friend Talbot who came here on Tuesday with a
lady."

"You are sure?"

"Positive. I have compared the handwriting in the hotel register with a
letter undoubtedly written by Mr. Talbot, and the two do not agree. The
entry 'Mr. and Mrs. Talbot, London,' in the visitors' book of the Grand
Hotel, was a mere trick intended to amuse the police for a few hours
until the conspirators had perfected their scheme for final and complete
disappearance."

"It was a bold move."

"Very. Quite in keeping with the rest of the detai