easy way.'

'Do you know of any danger?' Hamilton asked eagerly.

'How do you mean?'

'Well, I mean have you had any information of any definite danger--at
the Foreign Office?'

'No; we shouldn't be likely to get any information of that kind at the
Foreign Office. It would go, if there were any, to the Home Office?'

'Have you had any information from the Home Office?'

'Well, I may have had a hint--I don't know what ground there was for
it--but I believe there was a hint given at the Home Office to be on the
look-out for some fellows of a suspicious order from Gloria.'

Hamilton started. The words concurred exactly with the kind of warning
he had just received from Dolores Paulo.

'I wonder who gave the hint,' he said meditatively. 'It would immensely
add to the value of the information if I were to know who gave the
hint.'

'Oh! So, then, you have had some information of your own?'

'Yes, I may tell you that I have; and I should be glad to know if both
hints came from the same man.'

'Would it make the information more serious if they did?'

'To my mind, much more serious.'

'Well, I may tell you in confidence--I mean, not to get into the
confounded papers, that's all--the Home Secretary in fact, made no
particular mystery about it. He said the hint was given at the office by
an odd sort of person who called himself Captain Oisin Sarrasin.'

'That's the man,' Hamilton exclaimed.

'Well, what do you make of that and of him?'

'I believe he is an honest fellow and a brave soldier,' Hamilton said.
'But I have heard that some others have thought differently, and were
inclined to suspect that he himself was over here in the interests of
his Excellency's enemies. I don't believe a word of it myself.'

'Well, he will be looked after, of course,' Sir Rupert said decisively.
'But in the meantime I wouldn't let Ericson go about in that sort of
way--at night especially. He never ought to be alone. Will you see to
it?'

'If I can; but he's very hard to manage.'

'Have you tried to manage him on that point?' 'I have--yes--quite
lately.'

'What did he say?'

'Wouldn't listen to anything of the kind. Said he proposed to go about
where he liked. Said it was all nonsense. Said if people want to kill a
man they can do it, in spite of any precautions he takes. Said that if
anyone attacks him in front he can take pretty good care of himself, and
that if fellows come behind no man can take care of himself.'

'