ed. "It is absolutely impossible that he should have chosen such
a place to stop in except as a hiding-place. I don't like the look of
it, Ralph."

"Then don't go," Ralph said quickly. "There is no need for you to run
into danger for nothing at all."

"I am not afraid of that," I answered. "What really bothers me is that
I am up against a problem which seems insoluble. Frankly, I don't
believe a snap of the fingers in Delora. No man, however secret or
important his business might be, would descend to such subterfuges.
The only point in his favor is that this dodging about may be all due
to political reasons. I cannot understand his friendship with the
Chinese ambassador."

"Can't you?" Ralph answered. "I have been thinking over what you told
me, Austen, and I fancy, perhaps, I can give you a hint. Do you know
that at the present moment the two most powerful battleships in the
world are being built on the Tyne for Brazil?"

"I know that," I admitted. "Go on."

"What does Brazil want with battleships of that class?" my brother
continued. "Obviously they would be useless to her. She could not man
them. It would be a severe strain to her finances even to put them
into commission. I am of opinion that the order to build them was
given as a speculation by a few shrewd men in the Brazilian Government
who foresaw unsettled times ahead, and they are there to be disposed
of to the highest European or Asiatic bidder!"

I saw Ralph's point at once.

"By Jove!" I exclaimed. "You think, then, that Delora is over here to
arrange for the sale of them to some other Government--presumably to
China?"

"Why not?" Ralph asked. "It is feasible, and to some extent it
explains a good deal of what has seemed to you so mysterious. There
could be no more possible purchaser of the battleships than China,
except, perhaps, Russia, and transactions of that sort are always
attended with a large amount of secrecy."

"Of course, if you are on the right track," I admitted, "everything is
explained, and Delora is justified. There is just one thing which I do
not understand, and that is why he should have associated with such a
pack of thieves as the people at the Cafe des Deux Epingles, and why
he should be forced to make an ally--I had almost said accomplice--of
Louis."

"Well, you can't understand everything all at once," Ralph
answered. "At the same time, if I were you, I would try and see if the
hint I have given you fits in with the res