done with the old
red one? Sold it?"

"Not I, indeed. I know a trick worth two of that. I send it out,
empty, every day, in the hope of having those Apache johnnies follow
it, and have a plain-clothes man trailing along behind in a taxi,
ready to nip in and follow them if they do. But they don't--that is,
they haven't up to the present; but there's always hope, you know."

"Not in that direction, I'm afraid. Waldemar's a better general than
that, believe me. Knowing that we have discovered his little plan
of following the red limousine just as we discovered his other, of
following me, he will have gone off on another tack, believe me."

"Scotland! You don't think, do you, that he can possibly have found
out anything about the new one and has set in to follow _this_?"

"No, I do not. As a matter of fact I fancy he has started to do
what he ought to have done in the beginning--that is, to keep a
close watch on the criminal news in the papers day by day, and
every time a crime of any importance crops up, pay his respects
to the theatre of it and find out who is the detective handling
the case. A ducat to a doughnut he'd have been on our heels down
here to-day if this little business of the Stone Drum had been made
public in time to get into the morning papers. He means to have
me, Mr. Narkom, if having me is possible; and he's down to the
last ditch and getting desperate. Yesterday's cables from Mauravania
are anything but reassuring."

"I know. They say that unless something happens very shortly to turn
the tide in Ulric's favour and quell the cries for 'Restoration,' the
King's downfall and expulsion are merely a matter of a few days at
most. But what's that got to do with it that you suggest its bearing
upon any need for haste on Waldemar's part?"

"Only that, with matters in such a state, he cannot long defer his
return to the army of his country and the defence of its king,"
replied Cleek, serenely. "And every day he loses in failing to pay
his respects to your humble servant in the manner he desires to do
increases the strain of the situation and keeps him from the service
of his royal master."

"Well, I wish to God something would happen to blow him and his
royal master and their blooming royal country off the map, dammem!"
blazed out Narkom, too savage to be choice of words. "We've never had
a moment's peace, you and I, since the dashed combination came
into the game. And for what, I should like to know? N