In addition to this there were other and more momentous matters attracting the attention of the Court gossips. There were rumors--vague, undefined but persistent--of trouble brewing in the country at large. The Reactionists, it was asserted, were showing unusual activity of late; several quite prominent men, it was said, were under suspicion of secretly fomenting insurrectionary movements and certain startling discoveries in this connection had lately been made, thanks to the energy of Lord Ashley, assisted by the mysterious Mr. Kearns, who seemed to be in such close touch with the King. In fact, Mr. Kearns had come to be regarded as one possessed of secret power and high influence and was the recipient of numerous distinguished attentions forthwith. Various persons attached to the Court sought him out, entered into conversation and angled energetically for information. Lady Brooke, in particular, diligently pumped him for a long half-hour as to what he knew regarding the mysterious disappearance of Captain Stanley Mortimer. Mr. Kearns listened placidly; uttered solemn generalities and told nothing. With Lady Brooke he did go so far as to inform her that he would furnish her with the information she desired “in due course,” with which answer, in spite of further energetic probings, my Lady Brooke had to rest content. The result was that Mr. Kearns was put down as a man who knew more than he would tell and as a very wise person generally. He was by no means the first with whom a well-assumed air of reticence and oracular solemnity have passed for deep wisdom. It was further whispered that Lord Ashley and Mr. Kearns were working hand in hand in the matter of the suspected conspiracies and that startling disclosures were before long to be anticipated. Like most rumors, the ones in question possessed a certain percentage of truth and fact mixed with a far larger percentage of fiction. It was indeed true that Kearns had been taken in high favor by the King. Whether it was Mr. Kearns’s particular aptitude for impressing people, or whether it was due to some peculiar intuition, the fact remained that His Majesty entertained the belief that he was the one man above all others suited to occupy the position of his confidential Secret Service Chief and that it was he who was destined to unravel the various mysteries with which His Majesty had in the past been annoyed. There was this much to be said in favor of Kearns--he was free from any political affiliations and could not by any possibility be mixed up with any Court, or outside, influences: an extremely desirable man, therefore, from this viewpoint alone.