ing so
clearly the nature of the charge to be brought against him.

"That may be so," he admitted.

"It is so," went on Brett; "and in this matter you are even more
hopelessly idiotic than I took you to be. I have told you my name and
profession. I am a friend of Mr. Talbot, the English gentleman who has
been spirited away in connection with this crime, and I have in my
pocket at this moment a letter from the British Under-Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, authorising me to use my best efforts towards
elucidating the mystery and tracking the real criminals. Here is the
letter," he continued, producing a document and laying it before the
amazed official.

"I was on the point of making an important discovery with reference to
this case when these too zealous agents of yours seized me and
absolutely refused, even whilst I was a prisoner in their hands, to
follow up the definite clue I had obtained. It is an easy matter to
verify my statements. The authenticity of this letter will be proved at
the British Embassy, whilst a telegram to Scotland Yard will place
beyond doubt not only my identity, but my bona fides in acting for Mr.
Talbot's relatives and the Foreign Office. Further, an inquiry made at
the Grand Hotel will produce unquestionable testimony from the manager,
who knows me, and from my friend, Lord Fairholme, who occupies rooms
there at this moment."

"Lord Fairholme!" stuttered the official. "Why, that is the name given
by the other prisoner."

"Do you mean to say you have arrested the Earl of Fairholme?" gasped
Brett, struggling with an irresistible desire to laugh.

The Frenchman covered his confusion by growling an unintelligible order,
and bent over the letter which Brett had given to him. In half a minute
one of the detectives returned, and with him was Fairholme, on whose
honest face indignation and astonishment struggled for mastery.

"Oh, surely that cannot be you, Brett!" cried his lordship, the moment
he entered the room. "Well, of all the ---- fools that ever lived, these
French Johnnies take the cake. I suppose that they have spoiled the
whole business! If the brutes had not taken me by surprise I would have
knocked over a dozen of them before they arrested me."

"Silence!" shrieked the commissary, into whose mind was intruding the
consciousness that he had committed an outrageous blunder.

"What did you say your name was?" he demanded fiercely.

"I told you my name an hour ago," said