"And are you actually prepared to accept as truth the allegations which this woman uses as a lever to compel you to exercise your good offices on her behalf?" he observed, in a tone of reproach. I was silent, for I now recognised for the first time the strength of his argument. "You see her position is this," he continued. "She has nothing to lose and everything to gain. You get her the permit she desires; and she, in return, will tell you some absurd romance or other, concocted, perhaps, because she has taken a fancy to you and is jealous of Ella. We are friends, Deedes, or I should not speak so plainly. But I tell you that if I were in your place I would refuse to hear any lies from this pretty, soft-spoken criminal." "I quite appreciate your argument," I answered, reflectively, "and I thank you for your good advice." Were the words she had uttered lies, I wondered? Assuredly, her allegation that Ella was my enemy was a foul falsehood; nevertheless that she was well aware of the tragic end of Dudley Ogle I could not doubt, and her assertion that it had been intended that I should be the victim had startled me and aroused my curiosity. I was determined, at all hazards, to ascertain the truth. "Do not be entrapped by a pretty face or a fine pair of eyes, that's my advice," my companion said, slowly striking a match. "I can assure you, old fellow, I shall not be misled by any pretty face, even if it has diamond eyes," I said, quite unthinkingly, Sonia's strange words recurring to me at that moment. "Diamond eyes!" gasped Paul Verblioudovitch, starting visibly and holding the burning match still between his fingers without lighting his cigarette. He had in that instant grown paler, and I thought I detected that his hand trembled, almost imperceptibly be it said. "What do you mean?" he demanded, with a strange fierceness in his gaze. "What do you know of Diamond Eyes?" CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. A SPY'S STORY. "I know nothing of diamond eyes," I replied, surprised at Paul's excited inquiry. Instead of showing a good-natured friendliness towards me as usual, he had suddenly become agitated and suspicious. He glanced at me in doubt, saying,-- "Sonia has been revealing something. It is useless now to try and disguise the fact." "No," I replied quickly. "She has not explained anything. What do you expect her to reveal?" "Oh, nothing, my dear fellow, nothing," he answered, smiling, with that indifference cultivated by the diplomat. "The expression you used was as original as it was unusual, that's all." "I don't claim originality for it," I laughed. "To Sonia is the credit due." "To Sonia?" he exclaimed uneasily, glancing sharply at me. "Then it is true, as I suspected, that she has been telling you some of her ingenious falsehoods." "Scarcely that," I replied, thrusting my hands deeply into my pockets. "She has merely urged me to go to Ella and ask her whether she is acquainted with anyone with diamond eyes."