all know you know where the ivory is. Lord Montdidier is not the man
to connect himself with any wild goose chase. We don't pretend to know
how you came by the secret or why he has gone to London, but we are
sure you know it, perfectly sure, and for five or six reasons. We are
willing to buy the secret from you at your own price."

"Who are 'we'?" asked Fred pointedly, helping himself to nuts.

"The German government, the Sultan of Zanzibar, and myself."

Fred smiled. "Between you you probably could pay," he remarked.

"I will tell you a few hard facts," she said, "now that the ice is
broken. You will never be allowed to make full use of your own secret.
You have arrived at an inopportune moment, for you and for us. Our
plans have been on foot a long time. Our search has been systematic,
and it is a mathematical certainty we shall find what we look for in
time. We do not propose to let new arrivals on the scene spoil all our
plans and disappoint us just because they happen to have information.
If you go ahead you will be watched like mice whom cats are after. If
you find the ivory, you will be killed before you can make the
discovery known!"

"We seem up against it, don't we!" smiled Fred.

"You are! But you can save us trouble, if you will. Name your price.
Tell me your secret. Go your way. If your story proves true you shall
be paid by draft on London."

"Are you overlooking the idea," asked Fred, "that we might tell the
secret to the British government, and be contented with our ten per
cent. commission?"

"I am not. You are expressly warned against any such foolishness. In
the first place, you will be killed at once if you dare. In the
second place, how do you know the British government would pay you ten
per cent.?"

"I've had dealings with the English!" laughed Fred.

"Bah! Do you think this is Whitehall? Do you think the officials here
are proof against temptation? When I tell you that in Whitehall itself
I can bribe two officials out of three, perhaps you'll understand me
when I say that all these people have their price! And the price is
low! Tell them where the ivory is--lead them to it--and they'll swear
they found it themselves, so as to keep the commission themselves! And
as for you--you three"--she sneered with the most sardonic, thin-lipped
smile I ever saw--"there are lions out here, and buffalo, snakes,
fevers, native uprisings--more ways of being rid of you than by cho