riven to it. You know that I am a Member of Parliament, and you may
have heard that if our Party hadn't gone out a few years ago, I was to
have been Foreign Minister."

"I've heard that often enough," Lane assented. "I've heard you quoted,
too, as an example of the curse of party politics. Just because you are
forced to call yourself a member of one Party you are debarred from
serving your country in any capacity until that Party is in power."

"That's quite true," Hunterleys admitted, "and to tell you the truth,
ridiculous though it seems, I don't see how you're to get away from it
in a practical manner. Anyhow, when my people came out I made up my mind
that I wasn't going to just sit still in Opposition and find fault all
the time, especially as we've a real good man at the Foreign Office. I
was quite content to leave things in his hands, but then, you see,
politically that meant that there was nothing for me to do. I thought
matters over and eventually I paired for six months and was supposed to
go off for the benefit of my health. As a matter of fact, I have been in
the Balkan States since Christmas," he added, dropping his voice a
little.

"What the dickens have you been doing there?"

"I can't tell you that exactly," Hunterleys replied. "Unfortunately, my
enemies are suspicious and they have taken to watching me closely. They
pretty well know what I am going to tell you--that I have been out there
at the urgent request of the Secret Service Department of the present
Government. I have been in Greece and Servia and Roumania, and, although
I don't think there's a soul in the world knows, I have also been in St.
Petersburg."

"But what's it all about?" Richard persisted. "What have you been doing
in all these places?"

"I can only answer you broadly," Hunterleys went on. "There is a
perfectly devilish scheme afloat, directed against the old country. I
have been doing what I can to counteract it. At the last moment, just as
I was leaving Sofia for London, by the merest chance I discovered that
the scene for the culmination of this little plot was to be Monte Carlo,
so I made my way round by Trieste, stayed at Bordighera and San Remo for
a few days to put people off, and finally turned up here."

"Well, I'm jiggered!" Lane muttered. "And I thought you were just
hanging about for your health or because your wife was here, and were
bored to death for want of something to do."

"On the contrary," Hunterleys assur