.

"Perhaps," he replied. "I saw nothing that I can remember."

"That morning," Sabatini continued, "the morning of Rosario's death,
one read that the government of that country, which had vainly
applied for a loan to all the bankers of Europe with a view to
satisfying the claims of the army and navy, had at last succeeded in
arranging one through the intervention of Rosario. The paragraph was
probably inspired, but it spoke plainly, going so far, even, as to
say that the loan had probably averted a revolution. The man who had
saved the monarchy of an ancient nation was Rosario. One of his
rewards, I think, was to have been a title and a distinguished
order; it was understood among us that this was the real bait.
Rosario's actual reward you know of."

"But where does Isaac Lalonde come in?" demanded Arnold.

"Isaac Lalonde is the London secretary of the revolutionary party of
the country of which I have been speaking. I think," he concluded,
"that your intelligence will make the rest clear."

Arnold struck the table on the edge of which he was sitting with the
palm of his hand.

"Look here," he asked hoarsely, "if you knew all these things, if
you knew that Isaac Lalonde had committed this murder, why do you go
about with your lips closed? Why haven't you told the truth? An
innocent man might be arrested at any time."

Sabatini smiled tolerantly.

"My dear fellow," he said, "why should I? Be reasonable! When you
reach my age you will find that silence is often best. As a matter
of fact, in this ease my sympathies are very much involved. It is in
the mind of many of those who hold the strings that when that
revolution does take place it will be I who shall lead it."

Arnold was again bewildered.

"But you," he protested, "are of the ancient nobility of
Europe. What place have you among a crowd of anarchists and
revolutionaries?"

"You jump at conclusions, my young friend," remarked Sabatini. "The
country of which we have spoken is my country, the country from
which, by an unjust decree I am exiled. There are among those who
desire a change of government, many aristocrats. It is not only the
democracy whose hatred has been aroused by the selfish and brutal
methods of the reigning house."

Arnold got down from his table and walked to the window. The
telephone rang with some insignificant inquiry from a customer. The
incident somehow relieved him. It brought him back to the world of
every-day events. The re