"How?"

"I have kept the promise of silence I gave you, and as a consequence Frank Farquhar, the man to whom I was engaged, has left me."

"Left you!" he echoed. "He suspects something wrong--eh?"

She nodded in the affirmative.

"That's bad, Miss Gwen--very bad!" he said with a changed countenance.

"I know well what you must suffer, poor girl. You love him--eh?"

"Very dearly."

"And I am the cause of your estrangement," he remarked in a low sympathetic tone.

"Ah! it was not your fault, Mr Mullet," she cried, "I know that. Do not think that I am blaming you. The real blackguard is that red-faced man and his accomplice--the man who enticed me here on such a plausible pretext."

"I am also to blame. Miss Gwen," replied the big fellow with the bristly red moustache. "A deep game is being played, and, alas! I am compelled to be one of the players. It is being played against your father."

"I know that," she said. "I overheard Doctor Diamond telling my father how you had furnished him with a copy of that doc.u.ment describing the remarkable discovery of Professor Holmboe."

"Hush!" cried Mullet quickly, glancing at the door that stood slightly ajar. "There's n.o.body here, for the man who usually does for me is ill.

Yet we'd better not discuss that action of mine, Miss Gwen. I only did it in order to repay in part a great service the little Doctor has rendered me. So," he added, "the Doctor took the copy to your father?"

"Yes. He had previously, through Mr Farquhar, consulted my father regarding the half-burnt fragments in his possession. But the other day he came, bearing the full doc.u.ment, which they discussed for a couple of hours or more. Now, Mr Mullet," she said, "you have been a very good and kind friend to me; therefore, I'm wondering if you would render us a further service?"

"Anything in my power I will most willingly do," replied the _blase_ man, seeking permission to light his cigarette.

"I first want to know," she exclaimed, "who is that blackguard who came here and demanded to know my father's business?"

"He's a person of whom you need have no concern," was his evasive reply.

"But he possesses a copy of the statement by Professor Holmboe?"

"He does. And he has inst.i.tuted an active search in which three of the greatest scholars on the Continent are a.s.sisting, in order to ascertain the key to the cipher alleged by the Russian professor to exist in the prophecy of Ezekiel."

"But does he possess any ma.n.u.script of the Professor's relating to the cipher?" inquired the girl, eagerly.

"Ah! that I do not know," was his answer, "as far as I'm aware, he does not."

"Nothing definite has yet been ascertained, I suppose?"

"Nothing actually definite," he said. "But you can tell your father that Erich Haupt believes that at last he has struck the right line of inquiry."

"Haupt!" she repeated. "Who is he?"

"Your father will know him as the great professor of Leipzig. He is now staying at the Waldorf Hotel."

"But--well, Mr Mullet," she said with some hesitation. "Pardon me for saying so, but your friends seem a very unscrupulous and remarkable lot."

"And they are just as influential as they are unscrupulous," he laughed.

Then growing serious next moment, he added with a sigh, "Ah! Miss Gwen, if you only knew all, you'd realise how very delighted I'd be to cut myself adrift from such a rascally a.s.sociation."

"Why don't you?" she asked, looking straight into his eyes. "This business of the treasure of Israel is surely a big and lucrative one.

Why don't you leave them, and join my father, Mr Farquhar, and Doctor Diamond?"

"Well--shall I tell you the truth, Miss Griffin?" he asked, blowing a cloud of smoke from his lips as he contemplated the red end of his cigarette, "Because--well, because I dare not!"

"Dare not?"

"No," he said in a strained voice. "You see my part has not been an altogether blameless one. Need I explain more than to say that very often, for my very bread, I have to depend upon these persons who are working against your father."

The girl sighed, a painful expression crossing her brow.

"I wish I could help you, Mr Mullet," she said seriously. "Can't you possibly disa.s.sociate yourself from those scoundrels?"

He shook his head sadly.

The next instant she turned towards the door exclaiming:

"Hark! What was that? I heard a noise!"

"Nothing," he laughed. "The window of the next room is open a little, and the wind has blown the door to."

By this, she was rea.s.sured, even though she feared that the horrid red-faced man whose name he refused to tell her, might again reappear there as her inquisitor.

"It seems to me," she said, "that your friends, whoever they are, are dishonourable men whose bread you are compelled to eat. Surely you are in a position quite as wretched as I am?"

"Yes," he admitted. "But do me one favour, Miss Gwen. Never breathe to a soul that I've handed the copy of that doc.u.ment to the Doctor. If they knew that, they would never forgive me."

"I will remain silent, and I'll tell my father also to regard your action as confidential."

"Tell Mr Farquhar also," he urged.

"Ah!" sighed the girl. "Unfortunately I never see him now. He always meets my father at the Royal Societies Club--in order to avoid me."

"Then there is an actual breach between you?"

"Yes," she replied hoa.r.s.ely. "He asked me certain questions, to which I could not reply without betraying you."

"And you risked your love for a worthless fellow like myself!"

"Well? And did you not risk your liberty for my sake?" she asked. "Did you not protect me from that blackguard who would have struck me because I refused to answer his questions?"

"Oh, that was nothing, Miss Gwen. I am thinking of you."

"Can you--will you a.s.sist my father?" she urged. "For myself I care nothing. But for my father's reputation--in order to enhance it, and also that through him Israel shall recover her sacred relics, I am ready to sacrifice anything. Disa.s.sociate yourself from these men, and a.s.sist us, Mr Mullet. Do."

"That is, alas! impossible," was his slow response. "It would mean my instant ruin. Would it not be better if I remained in the enemy's camp?