the fine, clean, hard bone of a
fighting race.

The captain looked round, and sought his pocket-handkerchief, with which
to dust the proffered seat, mindful of his "suit."

"Do you speak German, captain?" inquired Kosmaroff.

And Captain Cable snorted at the suggestion.

"Sailed with a crew of Germans," he answered; "I understand a bit, and I
know a few words. I know the German for d--n your eyes, and handy words
like that."

"Then," said Kosmaroff, addressing the gentle-eyed man, "we had better
continue our talk in German. Captain Cable is a man who likes plain
dealing."

He himself spoke in the language of the Fatherland, and Captain Cable
stiffened at the sound of it, as all good Britons should.

"We have not much to say to Captain Cable," replied the man who seemed
to be a leader of the Brothers of Liberty. He spoke in a thin tenor
voice, and was what the French call _chetif_ in appearance--a weak man,
fighting against physical disabilities and an indifferent digestion.

"It is essential in the first place," he continued, "that we should
understand each other; we the conquerors and you the conquered."

With a gesture he divided the party assembled into two groups, the
smaller of which consisted only of Kosmaroff and another. And then he
looked out of the window with his woman-like, reflective smile.

"We the Russians, and you the Poles. I fear I have not made myself
quite clear. I understand, however, that we are to trust the last comer
entirely, which I do with the more confidence that I perceive that he
understands very little of what we are saying."

Captain Cable's solid, weather-beaten face remained rigid like a
figure-head. He looked at the speaker with an ill-concealed pity for one
who could not express himself in plain English and be done with it.

"Our circumstances are such that no correspondence is possible,"
continued the speaker. "Any agreement, therefore, must be verbal, and
verbal agreements should be quite clear--the human memory is so liable
to be affected by circumstances--and should be repeated several times in
the hearing of several persons. I understand, therefore, that, after a
period of nearly twenty years, Poland--is ready again."

There was a short silence in that dim and quiet room.

"Yes," said Kosmaroff, deliberately, at length.

"And is only awaiting her opportunity."

"Yes."

One of the Brothers of Liberty, possibly the secretary of that body,
which owned its inabil