thing else. I will furnish
you a list of his _noms de guerre_."

"Thank you. I should like all the information you care to give me; but it
may amuse you to know that I have seen the gentleman before."

"That is possible," remarked the old man, who never evinced surprise in
any circumstances.

"I expect to see him here within a few days."

Count von Stroebel held up his empty glass and studied it attentively,
while he waited for Armitage to explain why he expected to see Rambaud in
Geneva.

"He is interested in a certain young woman. She reached here yesterday;
and Rambaud, alias Chauvenet, is quite likely to arrive within a day or
so."

"Jules Chauvenet is the correct name. I must inform my men," said the
minister.

"You wish to arrest him?"

"You ought to know me better than that, Mr. John Armitage! Of course I
shall not arrest him! But I must get that packet. I can't have it
peddled all over Europe, and I can't advertise my business by having him
arrested here. If I could catch him once in Vienna I should know what to
do with him! He and Winkelried got hold of our plans in that Bulgarian
affair last year and checkmated me. He carries his wares to the best
buyers--Berlin and St. Petersburg. So there's a woman, is there? I've
found that there usually is!"

"There's a very charming young American girl, to be more exact."

The old man growled and eyed Armitage sharply, while Armitage studied the
photograph.

"I hope you are not meditating a preposterous marriage. Go back where you
belong, make a proper marriage and wait--"

"Events!" and John Armitage laughed. "I tell you, sir, that waiting is
not my _forte_. That's what I like about America; they're up and at it
over there; the man who waits is lost."

"They're a lot of swine!" rumbled Von Stroebel's heavy bass.

"I still owe allegiance to the Schomburg crown, so don't imagine you are
hitting me. But the swine are industrious and energetic. Who knows but
that John Armitage might become famous among them--in politics, in
finance! But for the deplorable accident of foreign birth he might become
president of the United States. As it is, there are thousands of other
offices worth getting--why not?"

"I tell you not to be a fool. You are young and--fairly clever--"

Armitage laughed at the reluctance of the count's praise.

"Thank you, with all my heart!"

"Go back where you belong and you will have no regrets. Something may
happen--who can tell? Event