nt on, "I admire your _sang froid_. The word 'outrage'
comes curiously from you, Count, but I am merely carrying out Mr.
Farrington's wishes, when I say that I am perfectly willing to explain
your present unhappy position. In some way you have made our friend very
angry," he went on, easily; "and at present he is disposed to treat you
with considerable harshness, to mete out the same harsh justice, in
fact, that he accorded to two of the people who were engaged in the
building of this house, and who were predisposed to blackmail him with a
threat of betrayal."

"I knew nothing of these," said Poltavo.

"Then you are one of the few people in London who do not," said Dr.
Fall, with a smile. "One was an architect, the other a fairly efficient
man of a type you will find on the continent of Europe, and who will be
an electrician's assistant or a waiter with equal felicity. These men
were engaged to assist in the construction of the house, they were
brought from Italy with a number of other workmen, and entrusted with a
section of its completion. Not satisfied with the handsome pay they
received for their workmanship, they instituted a system of blackmail
which culminated one night at Brakely Square in their untimely death."

"Did Farrington kill them?" gasped Poltavo.

"I will not go so far as to say that," said the suave secretary; "I only
say that they died. Unfortunately for them, they were acting
independently of one another and quarrelled violently when they found
that they had both come upon a similar errand, having at last identified
the mysterious gentleman, who had commissioned the house, with Gregory
Farrington, a worthy and blackmailable millionaire."

"So that was it," said Poltavo, thoughtfully.

"What a fool I was not to understand, not to see the connection. They
were shot dead outside Farrington's house. Who else could have committed
the crime but he?"

"Again, I will not go so far as to say that," repeated the secretary; "I
merely remark that the men died a most untimely death, as a result of
their eagerness to extract advantages from Mr. Farrington, which he was
not prepared to offer. You, Count Poltavo, are in some danger of sharing
the same fate."

"I have been in tighter holes than this," smiled Poltavo, but he was
uneasy.

"Do not boast," said the doctor quietly. "I doubt very much whether in
your life you have been in so tight a hole as you are in now. We are
quite prepared to kill you; I t