resting upon the
shoulder of the man into whose ear she was whispering, and whom she led
straight to one of the writing tables, Miss Violet Brown swept into the
room. On her right, and nearest to the two men, was Mr. Vincent Cawdor.

"Now you can go and talk to your friends!" she exclaimed, lightly. "I am
going to make Victor listen to me."

Cawdor left his two companions and sank on to the couch by Rounceby's
side. The young man, with his opera hat still on his head, and the light
overcoat which he had been carrying on the floor by his side, was seated
before the writing table with his back to them. Miss Brown was leaning
over him, with her hand upon the back of his chair. They were out of
hearing of the other three men.

"Well, Rounceby, my friend," Mr. Vincent Cawdor remarked, cheerfully,
"you're having a late sitting, eh?"

"We've been waiting for you, you fool!" Rounceby answered. "What on
earth are you thinking about, bringing a crowd like this about with you,
eh?"

Cawdor smiled, reassuringly.

"Don't you worry," he said, in a lower tone. "I know my way in and out
of the ropes here better than you can teach me. A big hotel like this
is the safest and the most dangerous place in the world--just how you
choose to make it. You've got to bluff 'em all the time. That's why I
brought the young lady--particular friend of mine--real nice girl, too!"

"And the young man?" Rounceby asked, suspiciously.

Cawdor grew more serious.

"That's Captain Lowther," he said softly--"private secretary to Colonel
Dean, who's the chief of the aeronaut department at Aldershot. He has
a draft in his pocket for twenty thousand pounds. It is yours if he is
satisfied with the plans."

"Twenty thousand pounds!" Marnstam said, thoughtfully. "It is very
little--very little indeed for the risks which we have run!"

Cawdor moved his place and sat between the men. He laid a hand upon
Marnstam's shoulder--another on Rounceby's knee.

"My dear friends," he said, impressively, "if you could have built a
model, or conducted these negotiations in the usual way, you might have
asked a million. As it is, I think I am the only man in England who
could have dealt with this matter--so satisfactorily."

Rounceby glanced suspiciously at the young man to whom Miss Brown was
still devoting the whole of her attention.

"Why don't he come out and talk like a man?" he asked. "What's the idea
of his sitting over there with his back to us?"

"I w