I reached Charing Cross at midnight," the Prince answered. "Our
train was an hour late. I am presenting my credentials early this
morning, and I am hoping for an interview during the afternoon."

Bellamy considered for a moment.

"It is true!" he said. "Between us three there is indeed no need
for secrecy. The information you speak of will be in our hands
within a few hours. I have no doubt whatever but that your Minister
will share in it."

"You know of what it Consists?" the Prince inquired curiously.

"I think so," Bellamy answered, glancing at the clock. "For my own
part, although the information itself is invaluable, I see another
and a profounder source of interest in that document. If, indeed,
it is what we believe it to be, it amounts to a casus belli."

"You mean that you would provoke war?" Prince Rosmaran asked.

Bellamy shrugged his shoulders.

"I," said he,--"I am not even a politician. But, you know, the
lookers-on see a good deal of the game, and in my opinion there is
only one course open for this country,--to work upon Russia so
that she withdraws from any compact she may have entered into with
Austria and Germany, to accept Germany's cooperation with Austria
in the despoilment of your country as a casus belli, and to declare
war at once while our fleet is invincible and our Colonies free
from danger."

The Prince nodded.

"It is good," he admitted, "to hear man's talk once more. Wherever
one moves, people bow the head before the might of Germany and
Austria. Let them alone but a little longer, and they will indeed
rule Europe."

Three o'clock struck. The Prince rose.

"I go," he announced.

"And I," Bellamy declared. "Come to my rooms at ten o'clock
tomorrow morning, Prince, and you shall hear the news."

Bellamy lingered behind. For a moment he held Louise in his arms
and gazed sorrowfully into her weary face.

"Is it worth while, I wonder?" he asked bitterly.

"Worth while," she answered, opening her eyes and looking at him,
"to feel the mother love? Who can help it who would not be ignoble?"

"But yours, dear," he murmured, "is all grief. Even now I am afraid."

"We can do no more than toil to the end," she said. "David, you are
sure this time?"

"I am sure," he replied. "I am going back now to the hotel where
Laverick is staying. We are going to sit together and smoke until
the morning. Nothing short of an army could storm the hotel. I
was with them all o