st admit, Herr Doktor, that I have been hardly used--by
yourself as well as by another person?"

My throat was dry with anxiety. What did the man mean by his veiled
allusions to "all who interfere in other people's business?"

I cleared my throat to speak.

Clubfoot raised a great hand in deprecation.

"No explanation, Herr Doktor, I beg" (his tone was perfectly
unconcerned and friendly), "let me have my say. When I found out that
you had left Rotterdam--by the way, you must let me congratulate you on
the remarkable fertility of resource you displayed in quitting Frau
Schratt's hospitable house--when I found you were gone, I sat down and
thought things out.

"I reflected that an astute American like yourself (believe me, you are
very astute) would probably be accustomed to look at everything from the
business standpoint. 'I will also consider the matter from the business
standpoint,' I said to myself, and I decided that, in your place, I too
would not be content to accept, as sole payment for the danger of my
mission, the scarcely generous compensation that Count Bernstorff allots
to his collaborators. No, I should wish to secure a little renown for
myself, or, were that not possible, then some monetary gain
proportionate with the risks I had run. You see, I have been at pains to
put myself wholly in your place. I hope I have not said anything
tactless. If so, I can at least acquit myself of any desire to offend."

"On the contrary, Herr Doktor," I replied, "you are the model of tact
and diplomacy."

His eyes narrowed a little at this. I thought he wouldn't like that word
"diplomacy."

"Another glass of wine? You may safely venture; there is not a headache
in a bottle of it. Well, Herr Doktor, since you have followed me so
patiently thus far, I will go further. I told you, when I first saw you
this evening, that I was delighted at our meeting. That was no mere
banality, but the sober truth. For, you see, I am the very person with
whom, in the circumstances, you would wish to get in touch. Deprived of
the honour, rightly belonging to me, of undertaking this mission
single-handed and of fulfilling it alone, I find that you can enable me
to carry out the mission to a successful conclusion, whilst I, for my
part, am able and willing to recompense your services as they deserve
and not according to Bernstorff's starvation scale.

"To make a long story short, Herr Doktor ... how much?"

He brought his remarks to th