the life out of him for the vile suggestion his words contained! I
dared not look at him; my eyes would have betrayed everything that he
was seeking to discover. I looked at the end of the cigarette I was
lighting, and wondered how I managed to steady the hand that held the
match.

"I really do not understand you!" I asserted blandly.

"Perhaps you may know her as Anna Petrovna?" he suggested.

"Anna Petrovna!" I repeated. "Now, that's the second time to-day I've
heard the lady's name; and I can't think why you gentlemen should
imagine it means anything to me. Who is she, anyhow?"

I looked at him now, fair and square; met and held the gimlet gaze of
his eyes with one of calm, interested inquiry. We were fighting a duel,
to which a mere physical fight is child's play; and--I meant to win!

"You do not know?" he asked.

"I do not; though I'd like to. The officer at the bureau this morning--I
don't suppose I need tell you that I was arrested and detained for a
time--seemed to think I should know her; but he wouldn't give me any
information. You've managed to rouse my curiosity pretty smartly between
you!"

"I fear it must remain unsatisfied, Monsieur, so far as I am concerned,"
he said suavely. "Well, we will relieve you of our presence. I
congratulate you on the admirable order in which you keep your papers."

His subordinate had risen, with an expressive shrug of his shoulders. I
knew their search must be futile, since I had fortunately destroyed Mary
Cayley's letter the day I received it; and there was nothing among my
papers referring either directly or indirectly to Anne.

"You'll want to see this, of course," I suggested, tendering my
passport. He glanced through it perfunctorily, and handed it back with a
ceremonious bow. So far as manners went, he certainly was an improvement
on the official at the bureau; and of course he already knew that my
personal papers were all right.

He gave me a courteous "good evening," and the other man, who hadn't
uttered a syllable the whole time, saluted me in silence. I heard one of
them give an order to the guards outside, and then the heavy tramp of
their feet descending the staircase.

I started tidying up; it would help to pass the time until I might
expect some message from the Grand Duke. Mishka had said nine o'clock,
and it was not yet seven.

Presently there came a knock at my door. I wondered if this might be
another police visitation; but it was only one of