ollow upon your escape, Mr. Grimm. Why _didn't_ they kill you?"

Mr. Grimm made a little gesture with both hands and was silent.

"May they not yet attempt it?" the president insisted.

"It's too late now," Mr. Grimm explained. "They had everything to gain
by killing me there as I stood in the room where I had interrupted the
signing of the compact, because that would have been before I had placed
the facts in the hands of my government. I was the only person outside
of their circle who knew all of them. Only the basest motive could
inspire them to attempt my life now."

There was a pause. The secretary of state glanced from Mr. Grimm to Mr.
Campbell with a question in his deep-set eyes.

"Do I understand that you placed a Miss Thorne and the prince
under--that is, you detained them?" he queried. "If so, where are they
now?"

"I don't know," was the reply. "Just before the explosion the three of
us entered an automobile together, and then as we were starting away I
remembered something which made it necessary for me to reenter the
house. When I came out again, just a few seconds before the explosion,
the prince and Miss Thorne had gone."

The secretary's lips curled down in disapproval.

"Wasn't it rather unusual, to put it mildly, to leave your prisoners to
their own devices that way?" he asked.

"Well, yes," Mr. Grimm admitted. "But the circumstances were unusual.
When I entered the house I had locked a man in the cellar. I had to go
back to save his life, otherwise--"

"Oh, the guard at the door, you mean?" came the interruption. "Who was
it?"

Mr. Grimm glanced at his chief, who nodded.

"It was Mr. Charles Winthrop Rankin of the German embassy," said the
young man.

"Mr. Rankin of the German embassy was on guard at the door?" demanded
the president quickly.

"Yes. We got out safely."

"And that means that Germany was--!"

The president paused and startled glances passed around the table. After
a moment of deep abstraction the secretary went on:

"So Miss Thorne and the prince escaped. Are they still in this country?"

"That I don't know," replied Mr. Grimm. He stood silent a moment,
staring at the president. Some subtle change crept into the listless
eyes, and his lips were set. "Perhaps I had better explain here that the
personal equation enters largely into an affair of this kind," he said
at last, slowly. "It happens that it entered into this. Unless I am
ordered to pursue the matter furth