sked curiously. "I hope you
will remember that as yet I am scarcely established here."

"It is with regard to your establishment here," Seaman explained drily,
"that I desire to say a word. We have seen much of one another since we
met in Cape Town. The passion and purpose of my life you have been able
to judge. Of those interludes which are necessary to a human being,
unless his system is to fall to pieces as dry dust, you have also seen
something. I trust you will not misunderstand me when I say that apart
from the necessities of my work, I am a man of sentiment."

"I am prepared to admit it," Dominey murmured a little idly.

"You have undertaken a great enterprise. It was, without a doubt, a
miraculous piece of fortune which brought the Englishman, Dominey,
to your camp just at the moment when you received your orders from
headquarters. Your self-conceived plan has met with every encouragement
from us. You will be placed in a unique position to achieve your final
purpose. Now mark my words and do not misunderstand me. The very keynote
of our progress is ruthlessness. To take even a single step forward
towards the achievement of that purpose is worth the sacrifice of all
the scruples and delicacies conceivable. But when a certain course
of action is without profit to our purpose, I see ugliness in it. It
distresses me."

"What the devil do you mean?" Dominey demanded.

"I sleep with one ear open," Seaman replied.

"Well?"

"I saw you leave your room early this morning," Seaman continued,
"carrying Lady Dominey in your arms."

There were little streaks of pallor underneath the tan in Dominey's
face. His eyes were like glittering metal. It was only when he had
breathed once or twice quickly that he could command his voice.

"What concern is this of yours?" he demanded.

Seaman gripped his companion's arm.

"Look here," he said, "we are too closely allied for bluff. I am here to
help you fill the shoes of another man, so far as regards his estates,
his position, and character, which, by the by, you are rehabilitating. I
will go further. I will admit that it is not my concern to interfere in
any ordinary amour you might undertake, but--I shall tell you this, my
friend, to your face--that to deceive a lady of weak intellect, however
beautiful, to make use of your position as her supposed husband, is not,
save in the vital interests of his country, the action of a Prussian
nobleman."

Dominey's passion seemed