“Not a bit of it. We should still have wrecked this little revolutionary move and you could carry out the rest of the plan with the much stronger card that these beggars would have to answer for what they might have done to me.” “Yes, but hang it all, man, there’s--there’s the girl,” he said, hesitatingly and almost nervously. “You don’t want to make me jealous, do you?” “Don’t rot, Ralph. I’m in earnest.” “The offer is just what I should expect from you, but I must see the thing through myself. If there is any risk, it must be mine.” “I’d much rather----” “No, Jack,” I interposed, shaking my head. His offer moved me deeply. It was just like his whole-hearted friendship to wish to take the risk, especially as he believed it to be much more serious than I did. Big or little, however, that risk must be mine. But his disappointment was both genuine and keen. “I must go out now,” I said a moment later. “I have to see Dagara, and while I’m away, you’d better take Bryant down to the landing-stage and put him through his paces.” He got up with a smile and a heave of his broad shoulders. “You’re an obstinate devil, Ralph,” he said: “and it would serve you right if I chucked the whole thing.” “Look here. I’ll put it another way. If our positions were reversed, would you let me take the star part?” “I don’t want any of your conundrums,” he grunted, and went off to call Bryant. Acting on my resolve to avoid even remote risks, I took Simmons with me to M. Volheno’s bureau. I found Dagara on the look-out for me, and the moment I asked for M. Volheno, he came out of an adjoining room. “M. Volheno is not in, Mr. Donnington,” he said, for the benefit of the clerks round. “Can I be of any assistance?” “I only wished to ask a simple question.” “Will you come into my room?” and he led the way. “Well? Have you any further information for me?” I asked as soon as he had closed the door carefully behind us. “No, Mr. Donnington.” “There is no change in the arrangements for His Majesty’s arrival to-night?” “None whatever, but--but I want to speak to you. I can’t bear this any longer. I have decided to tell M. Volheno everything.” If he did anything of the sort, of course there was an end to all my plans, and therefore to all my hopes of getting Miralda out of the trouble. But it would not do to let him see it. “I think you are quite right.” He was as much surprised as I intended him to be. “I scarcely expected you to agree so readily. But after my promise to you, I felt I must let you know first.” “I am not involved, M. Dagara. You are in a very trying position--purgatory, as you term it--but your ruin and imprisonment cannot in any way affect any one but yourself and your wife and children, of course.” “My wife and children?” he echoed blankly. “No, not your children, perhaps. Your friends will no doubt be able to take care of them. Your wife, only, I should have said.” “But she has had nothing to do with this betrayal of information.”