"Absolutely nothing," Harcutt answered decidedly. "I may as well repeat that my interest is in the man alone. I am not a sentimental person at all. His niece is perhaps the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life, but it is with no thought of her that I have taken up this investigation. Having assured you of that, I want to know if you will help me?" "You must speak a little more plainly," Wolfenden said; "you are altogether too vague. What help do you want, and for what purpose?" "Mr. Sabin," Harcutt said; "is engaged in great political schemes. He is in constant and anxious communication with the ambassadors of two great Powers. He affects secrecy in all his movements, and the name by which he is known is without doubt an assumed one. This much I have learnt for certain. My own ideas are too vague yet for me to formulate. I cannot say any more, except that I believe him to be deep in some design which is certainly not for the welfare of this country. It is my assurance of this which justifies me in exercising a certain espionage upon his movements--which justifies me also, Wolfenden, in asking for your assistance." "My position," Wolfenden remarked, "becomes a little difficult. Whoever this man Sabin may be, nothing would induce me to believe ill of his niece. I could take no part in anything likely to do her harm. You will understand this better, Harcutt, when I tell you that, a few hours ago, I asked her to be my wife." "You asked her--what?" "To be my wife." "And she?" "Refused me!" Harcutt looked at him for a moment in blank amazement. "Who refused you--Mr. Sabin or his niece?" "Both!" "Did she--did Mr. Sabin know your position, did he understand that you are the future Earl of Deringham?" "Without a doubt," Wolfenden answered drily; "in fact Mr. Sabin seems to be pretty well up in my genealogy. He had met my father once, he told me." Harcutt, with the natural selfishness of a man engaged upon his favourite pursuit, quite forgot to sympathise with his friend. He thought only of the bearing of this strange happening upon his quest. "This," he remarked, "disposes once and for all of the suggestion that these people are ordinary adventurers." "If any one," Wolfenden said, "was ever idiotic enough to entertain the possibility of such a thing. I may add that from the first I have had almost to thrust my acquaintance upon them, especially so far as Mr. Sabin is concerned. He has never asked me to call upon them here, or in London; and this morning when he found me with his niece he was quietly but furiously angry." "It is never worth while," Harcutt said, "to reject a possibility until you have tested and proved it. What you say, however, settles this one. They are not adventurers in any sense of the word. Now, will you answer me a few questions? It may be just as much to your advantage as to mine to go into this matter." Wolfenden nodded.