"Anything further?" inquired the great statesman in a low, mechanical tone, his gaze fixed straight before him as he sat. "Nothing further, your Lordship," answered the telegraphist. The Earl of Warnham sighed deeply, his thin hands twitching with a nervous excitement he strove in vain to suppress. "Ask if Lord Maybury is in town," he said hoarsely, suddenly rousing himself. Again the instrument clicked, and a few moments later the telegraphist, turning to the Foreign Minister, said,-- "The Premier is in town, your Lordship." The Earl glanced at his watch a few seconds in silence, then exclaimed,-- "Tell Gaysford to inform Lord Maybury at once of the contents of this last dispatch from St Petersburg, and say that I will meet the Premier at 5:30 at the Foreign Office." The telegraphist touched the key, and in a few moments the Minister's orders were obeyed. Then, taking a sheet of note-paper and a pencil, he wrote in a private cipher a telegram, which he addressed to Her Majesty at Osborne. This, too, the clerk dispatched at once over the wire, followed by urgent messages to members of the Cabinet Council and to Lord Kingsbury, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, asking them to meet informally at six o'clock that evening at the Foreign Office. When all these messages had been transmitted with a rapidity that was astonishing, the telegraphist turned in his chair and asked,-- "Anything more, your lordship?" "Nothing for the present," he answered. "Leave us." Then, when he had gone, the Earl rose slowly, and with bent head, and hands clasped behind his back, he strode up and down the library in silent contemplation. Suddenly he halted before me where I stood, and abruptly asked,-- "What did you say was the name of that friend who lunched with you yesterday?" "Ogle," I answered. "Dudley Ogle." "And his profession?" "He had none. His father left him with enough to live upon comfortably." "Who was his father?" he inquired, with a sharp look of doubt. "A landowner." "Where?" "I don't know." The Earl slightly raised his shaggy grey brows, then continued,-- "How long have you known this friend?" "Several years." "You told me that he has died since yesterday," his lordship said. "Is not that a rather curious fact--if true?" "True!" I cried. "You apparently doubt me. A telegram to the police at Staines will confirm my statement." "Yes, I never disguise my doubts, Deedes," the Earl snapped, fixing his grey eyes upon mine. "I suspect very strongly that you have sold the secret to our enemies; you have, to put it plainly, betrayed your country." "I deny it!" I replied, with fierce anger. "I care not for any of your alleged proofs. True, the man who was with me during the whole time I was absent is dead. Nevertheless I am prepared to meet and refute all the accusations you may bring against me."