Paul laugh to think that any man should attempt to
blackmail him. He had nothing to disguise, nothing to hide.

Indeed, as he sat easily on the edge of the bed, looking at the dark,
disconcerted face before him, he had half a mind to throw his weapon
aside and to tell Ivanovitch to go his way in peace.

"What did you find?" Paul asked.

Boris did not even blink his heavy-lidded eyes.

"Nothing," he said.

"Yet," rejoined Paul, almost meditatively, "you must have been here
some minutes at least before I arrived."

"I tell you," said Boris, almost earnestly, "that I found nothing."

"That is to say," said Paul, "nothing which you could turn to your own
good account."

Boris smiled a sour yet demure little smile.

"Precisely," he said evenly.

"Permit me," said the baronet, just as quietly, "to inform you that
you are a liar. I think you will be able to hand me something that is
of interest to us both."

"I was not aware that I could," replied Boris, with a touch of sarcasm
in his voice.

Paul picked up again the six-shooter which he had laid carelessly at
his side.

"Try," he said, and his voice was gently persuasive.

Just a flicker of vindictiveness crept into Boris' eyes, and under the
suasion of firearms he turned again to the bag.

After a few moments Paul, now schooled to infinite placidity, inquired
for the second time if he had found anything.

"Only a few papers," said Boris, crossly.

"Pardon me," said the baronet, "if I am not mistaken you have found
something that seems of interest to you. Be kind enough to hand it to
me."

The Russian turned about, and with a carefully-manicured hand offered
Paul a photograph which Paul had seen protruding from his pocket.

Paul took it and looked at it casually, though the muscles on his
closed jaws stood out in a manner that was not wholly pleasant to look
upon. It was, however, with unfathomable eyes that he surveyed the
portrait before him.

The photograph revealed the features of a girl with an astonishingly
quiet face. Her cheeks were round and soft, and her chin was round and
soft, too, but her mouth, a little full and pronounced, was distinctly
sad and set. A pair of large eyes looked out upon the world
unwaveringly and serenely, if a little sorrowfully, beneath a pair of
finely pencilled, level brows, which formed, as it were, a little bar
of inflexible resolve. A mass of dark hair was coiled upon the girl's
head after the manner of early V