s that the heart of the English people is as sound and
true as ever it was----'

'Very likely,' Rivers interposed saucily. 'I never said it wasn't.'

Lord Courtreevo gaped with astonishment.

'I don't quite grasp your meaning,' he stammered.

'I never said,' Soame Rivers replied deliberately, 'that the heart of
the English people was not just as sound and true now as ever it was--I
dare say it is just about the same--_meme jeu_, don't you know?' and he
took a languid puff at his cigarette.

'Am I to be glad or sorry of your answer?' Lord Courtreeve asked, with a
stare.

'How can I tell? It depends on what you want me to say.'

'Well, if you mean to praise the great heart of the English people now,
and at other times----'

'Oh dear, no; I mean nothing of the kind.'

'I say, Rivers, this is all bosh, you know,' Sir Rupert struck in.

'I think we are all shams and frauds in our set--in our class,' Rivers
said, composedly; 'and we are well brought up and educated and all that,
don't you know? I really can't see why some cads who clean windows, or
drive omnibuses, or sell vegetables in a donkey-cart, or carry bricks up
a ladder, should be any better than we. Not a bit of it--if we are bad,
they are worse, you may put your money on that.'

'Well I think I have had my answer,' the Dictator said, with a smile.

'And what is your interpretation of the Oracle's answer?' Rivers asked.

'I should have to interpret the Oracle itself before I could be clear as
to the meaning of its answer,' Ericson said composedly.

Soame Rivers knew pretty well by the words and by the tone that if he
did not like the Dictator, neither did the Dictator very much like him.

'You must not mind Rivers and his cynicism,' Sir Rupert said,
intervening somewhat hurriedly; 'he doesn't mean half he says.'

'Or say half he means,' Rivers added.

'But, as I was telling you, about the police organisation of Siam,' Sir
Lionel broke out anew. And this time the others went back without
resistance to a few moments more of Siam.

CHAPTER X

A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE

Captain Oisin Sarrasin came one morning to see the Dictator by
appointment.

Captain Oisin Sarrasin had described himself in his letter to the
Dictator as a soldier of fortune. So he was indeed, but there are
soldiers and soldiers of fortune. Ho was not the least in the world like
the Orlando the Fearless, who is described in Lord Lytton's 'Rienzi,'
and who cared only for his