n his
usually vacuous face, stood in the windowed doorway. From behind him,
two exceedingly formidable-looking men slipped into the room. There was
no fight, not even a struggle. Seaman, who had never recovered from the
shock of his surprise, and was now completely unnerved, was handcuffed
in a moment, and Schmidt disarmed. The latter was the first to break the
curious silence.

"What have I done?" he demanded. "Why am I treated like this?"

"Doctor Schmidt?" Eddy asked pleasantly.

"That is my name, sir," was the fierce reply. "I have just landed from
East Africa. We knew nothing of the war when we started. I came to
expose that man. He is an impostor--a murderer! He has killed a German
nobleman."

"He has committed _lese majeste_!" Seaman gasped. "He has deceived the
Kaiser! He has dared to sit in his presence as the Baron Von Ragastein!"

The young man in flannels glanced across at Dominey and smiled.

"I say, you two don't mean to be funny but you are," he declared. "First
of all, there's Doctor Schmidt accuses Sir Everard here of being an
impostor because he assumed his own name; accuses him of murdering a man
who had planned in cold blood--you were in that, by the by, Schmidt--to
kill him; and then there's our friend here, the secretary of the society
for propagating better relations between the business men of England and
Germany, complaining because Sir Everard carried through in Germany, for
England, exactly what he believed the Baron Von Ragastein was carrying
out here--for Germany. You're a curious, thick-headed race, you
Germans."

"I demand again," Schmidt shouted, "to know by what right I am treated
as a criminal?"

"Because you are one," Eddy answered coolly. "You and Von Ragastein
together planned the murder of Sir Everard Dominey in East Africa, and I
caught you creeping across the floor just now with a knife in your hand.
That'll do for you. Any questions to ask, Seaman?"

"None," was the surly reply.

"You are well-advised," the young man remarked coolly. "Within the last
two days, your house in Forest Hill and your offices in London Wall have
been searched."

"You have said enough," Seaman declared. "Fate has gone against me. I
thank God that our master has abler servants than I and the strength to
crush this island of popinjays and fools!"

"Popinjays seems severe," Eddy murmured, in a hard tone. "However, to
get on with this little matter," he added, turning to one of his two
subord