There was on his face that unmistakable look of the man who intends to kill. The other man saw it and understood, and reluctantly raised his hands above his head after making a half-gesture as if to draw his own pistol from his belt but thinking better of it. “This is very foolish, Mr. Edestone,” he said with a disdainful sneer. “Will you fight single-handed six million men?” Jones, who when a young man had spent a good many years in a frontier town, was too accustomed to this method of punctuating one’s remarks and calling the undivided attention of one’s listener to them, to be much surprised. At any rate, he showed none, and besides he knew Edestone to be a perfectly cool man whose trigger finger would not twitch from nervousness. “Be careful, Jack,” he contented himself with saying very quietly; “I suppose you know what you are about.” Then he settled back to wait for Edestone to explain what he would do next. “Yes, William,” said Edestone, “I know exactly what I am doing, and in order to relieve you and your Government from any responsibility, I here, in the presence of the Emperor’s representative, renounce my allegiance to the United States of America and to all other countries, and I now become a law unto myself, accountable to no one but myself--in other words, an outlaw, a pirate.” He turned then to the emissary of the Kaiser. “Count von Hemelstein, as I intend to keep you in that position for some little time unless you will allow me to remove your arms--not your sword,” he explained quickly on seeing the look of horror that came over the Prussian’s face. “I will allow you to keep that barbaric relic of the Middle Ages and modern Japan, to which you and the Knights k of the Orient attach so much importance. But that very nice automatic I must have. I beg that you will allow me to take it without any unnecessary fuss.” He walked around the table and, gently pulling the pistol out of its holster, put it into his own pocket, keeping the Count carefully covered all the while. “Now you can take down your hands. I know that you can hide nothing more dangerous in that tight-fitting uniform of yours than a long cigarette holder and a very pretty box. I am delighted that you have been so quiet, as no one could come to your assistance. Your soldiers are locked outside of the iron grille and would have some difficulty in breaking it down, even if they could hear you; so sit down. I wish to explain a few things to you.