Felix at first smiled; then he leaned back amongst the cushions and laughed outright. When he had ceased, he wiped the tears from his eyes. He sat up again and looked with admiration at the still, pale figure opposite to him. "You are inimitable," he said--"wonderful! If you live long enough, you will certainly become very famous. What will it be, I wonder--Emperor, Dictator, President of a Republic, the Minister of an Emperor? The latter I should imagine; you were always such an aristocrat. I would not have missed this journey for the world. I am longing to know what you will say to Prince Lobenski at King's Cross." Mr. Sabin looked at him keenly. "So you are only a lacquey after all, then?" he remarked--"a common spy!" "Very much at your service," Felix answered, with a low bow. "A spy, if you like, engaged for the last two weeks in very closely watching your movements, and solving the mystery of your sudden devotion to a heathenish game!" "There, at any rate," Mr. Sabin said calmly, "you are quite wrong. If you had watched my play I flatter myself that you would have realised that my golf at any rate was no pretence." "I never imagined," Felix rejoined, "that you would be anything but proficient at any game in which you cared to interest yourself; but I never imagined either that you came to Cromer to play golf--especially just now." "Modern diplomacy," Mr. Sabin said, after a brief pause, "has undergone, as you may be aware, a remarkable transformation. Secrecy is now quite out of date; it is the custom amongst the masters to play with the cards upon the table." "There is a good deal in what you say," Felix answered thoughtfully. "Come, we will play the game, then! It is my lead. Very well! I have been down here watching you continually, with the object of discovering the source of this wonderful power by means of which you are prepared to offer up this country, bound hand and foot, to whichever Power you decide to make terms with. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it? But you obviously believe in it yourself, and Lobenski believes in you." "Good!" Mr. Sabin declared. "That power of which I have spoken I now possess! It was nearly complete a month ago; an hour's work now will make it a living and invulnerable fact." "You obtained," Felix said, "your final success this afternoon, when you robbed the mad Admiral." Mr. Sabin shook his head gently. "I have not robbed any one," he said; "I never use force." Felix looked at him reproachfully. "I have heard much that is evil about you," he said, "but I have never heard before that you were known to--to--dear me, it is a very unpleasant thing to say!" "Well, sir?" "To cheat at cards!" Mr. Sabin drew a short, little breath. "What I have said is true to the letter," he repeated "The Admiral gave me the trifling information I asked for, with his own hands." Felix remained incredulous. "Then you must add the power of hypnotism," he declared, "to your other accomplishments."