Jim took it. "H'm! Invisible ink, and it's had a fine washing." "But maybe it is waterproof." "Maybe it is. Anyhow, Miss Sherlock, we'll show it to Jones and see what he says." CHAPTER XX "What I want now," said Braine, as he paced the living-room of the apartment of the countess, "is revenge. I've been checkmated enough, Olga; they're playing with us." "That is nothing new," she replied, shrugging. "At the beginning I warned you. I never liked this affair after the first two or three failures. But you would have your way. You wanted revenge at that early date; but I can not see that you've gone forward. Has it ever occurred to you that the organization may be getting tired, too? They depend solely upon your invention, and each time your invention has resulted in touching nothing but zero." "Thanks!" "Oh, I'm not chiding you. I've failed, too." "Are you turning against me?" he demanded bitterly. "Do my actions point that way?" she countered. "No. But the more I view what has passed, the more disheartened I grow. It has been a series of blind alleys, and all we have succeeded in doing is knocking our heads. I can see now that all our failures are due to one mistake." "And what the devil is that?" he asked irritably. "We were in too much of a hurry at the beginning. Hargreave prepared himself for quick action on your part." [Illustration: BRAINE REACHED THE GIRL AND PULLED HER INTO THE BOAT] "And if I had not acted quickly he would have started successfully on one of his world tours again, and that would have been the last of him, and we should never have learned of the girl's existence. So there's your argument." "Perhaps you are right. But for all that we have not played the game with any degree of finesse." "Bah!" Braine lit a cigarette and smoked nervously. "I can't even get rid of that meddling reporter. He has been as much to blame for our failures as either Jones or Hargreave. I admit that in his case I judged hastily. I believed him to be just an ordinary newspaper man, and he was clever enough to lull my suspicions. But I'm going to get him, Olga, even if I have to resort to ordinary gunman tricks. If there's any final reckoning, by the Lord Harry, he shan't get a chance in the witness stand." "And I begin to think that that little chit of a girl has been hoodwinking me all along. By the way, did you find out what that letter said?" she asked after a pause. "Letter? What letter?" She sprang from her chair. "Do you mean to say that they have not told you about that?" Olga became greatly excited. "Explain," he said.