is breath away. What was this? He dropped
the paper with a cry.

"What is it, Frank?" said Rachel startled.

"Good Heavens! what have they done that for?" he said, springing to his
feet in uncontrollable excitement.

"Done what?" said Rachel.

"Why, they have announced--they have put in something that Lord
Stamfordham----" He snatched up the paper again and looked at it
eagerly. "It is incredible! and the map too, the very map, at this
stage! Well, upon my word, he has made a mistake this time, I do
believe." And he still gazed at the paper as though trying to fathom the
whole hearing of what he saw.

At this moment the door opened, and Thacker came in.

"Sir William wished me to ask you for some foolscap paper, ma'am,
please," he said, "with lines on it."

"Foolscap paper? What is he doing?" said Rachel anxiously.

"He is writing, ma'am," said Thacker. "He seems to be doing accounts."

"Oh, I wish he wouldn't!" Rachel said. "I must go and see. I'll bring
the foolscap paper myself, Thacker. Frank, there is some in your study,
isn't there?"

"What?" said Rendel, who, still absorbed in what he had just seen, had
only dimly heard their colloquy.

"Some foolscap paper," she repeated. "There is some in your study?"

"Yes, yes, in my writing-table," he said absently.

Rachel went quickly out of the room. At that moment the hall door bell
rang violently. Rendel started and went to the window. In the phase of
acute tension in which he found himself, every unexpected sound carried
an untold significance, but he was not prepared for what this one
betokened: Lord Stamfordham in the street, dismounting from his horse.
Stamfordham was accustomed to ride every morning from eight till nine,
alone and unattended. Thacker hurried out to hold the horse. Rendel
followed him and met Stamfordham on the doorstep. He led the way quickly
across the hall into his study and shut the door. They both felt
instinctively that greetings were superfluous.

"Have you seen the _Arbiter_?" Stamfordham said.

"Yes," said Rendel, looking him straight in the face with eager
expectation.

"So have I," said Stamfordham, "at the German Embassy. I had not seen it
before leaving home, but I saw a poster at the corner, and I went
straight to Bergowitz to ask him what it meant; he is as much in the
dark as I am."

"In the dark!" said Rendel, looking at him amazed. "What! but--was it
not you who published it?"

"_I_ publish it?" said Stamfor