lank--the tall, erect figure of a man whom the most
casual observer must have recognized as one who had known military
training--had changed its alert attitude and was sauntering up
and down as if, when they came nearer and the light allowed him
to see what they were, he had lost all interest in them and their
doings. Narkom gave the man a glance from the tail of his eye as
they went up the gangplank and boarded the boat, and brief as that
glance was, it was sufficient to assure him of two things: First,
that the man was not only strikingly handsome but bore himself with
an air which spoke of culture, birth, position; second, that he
was a foreigner, with the fair hair and the slightly hooked nose
which was so characteristic of the Mauravanians.

With Dollops at his side, Narkom slunk aft, where the lights were
less brilliant and the stern of the boat hung over the dark, still
waters, and pausing there, turned and looked back at the waiting man.

A French sailor was moving past in the darkness. He stopped the man
and spoke to him.

"Tell me," he said, slipping a shilling into the fellow's hand, "do
you happen to know who that gentleman is, standing on the pier there?"

"Yes, m'sieur. He is equerry to his Majesty King Ulric of Mauravania.
He has crossed with us frequently during his Majesty's sojourn in
Paris."

"Gawd's truth, sir," whispered Dollops, plucking nervously at the
superintendent's sleeve as the sailor, after touching his cap with
his forefinger, passed on. "Apaches at one end and them Mauravanian
johnnies at the other! I tell you they're a-workin' hand in hand for
some reason--workin' against _him_!"

Narkom lifted a silencing hand and turned to move away where there
would be less likelihood of anything they might say being overheard;
for at that moment a voice had sounded and from a most unusual
quarter. Unnoticed until now, a fisher's boat, which for some time
had been nearing the shore, swept under the packet's stern and
grazed along the stone front of the pier.

"Voila, m'sieur," said, in French, the man who sailed it. "Have I
not kept my word and brought your excellency across in safety and
with speed?"

"Yes," replied the passenger whom the fisher addressed. He spoke in
perfect French, and with the smoothness of a man of the better class.
"You have done well indeed. Also it was better than waiting about at
Calais for the morning boat. I can now catch the very first train
to London. Fast is s