e meaning of
what his employer had just said. At length he answered: "I owe you many
thanks, sir. What do you want me to do?"

"Understand this: L300 a year is your starting salary. If I find you
after trial to be the man I think you are, you can look forward to
bigger money.... Now my point lies here; Mr Matheson was engaged with me
in a large-scale enterprise. Alive, he would have been useful to me. I
intend to keep him alive!"

CHAPTER V

THE FIRST MOVE IN THE GAME

At the great Leadenhall Street office of the shipowner, an office which
bore outside the simple sign--ostentatious in its simplicity--of "Lars
Larssen--Shipping," Arthur Dean had looked upon his employer from afar
as some demi-god raised above other business men by mysterious gifts
from heaven. A modern Midas with the power of turning what he touched to
gold.

Now he was granted an intimate glimpse into the workings of his
employer's mind that came to him as a positive revelation. Larssen's
were no mysterious powers, but the powers that every man possessed
worked at white heat and with an extraordinary swiftness and exactitude.
The revelation did not sweep away the glamour; on the contrary, it
increased it. Lars Larssen was a craftsman taking up the commonest tools
of his craft and using them to create a work of art of consummate build.

His present work was to keep alive the personality of Clifford Matheson
until the Hudson Bay scheme should be launched. To use Matheson's name
on the prospectus, and to use his influence with Sir Francis Letchmere
and others. Dead, Matheson was to serve him better than alive.

But the shipowner did not build his edifice on the foundation merely of
what Arthur Dean had told him. He had to satisfy himself more
accurately.

A string of rapid, apparently unconnected orders almost bewildered the
young secretary:--

"First, get a list of the big hotels at Monte Carlo. Engage the trunk
telephone and call up each hotel until you find where Sir Francis
Letchmere is staying. Give no name.... Buy a pair of workman's boots to
fit you. Get them in some side street shop. Bring them with you--don't
ask them to send.... Take this typewriting"--he took a letter from his
pocket and carefully clipped off a small portion--"and match it with a
portable travelling machine. Can you recognize the make of machine
off-hand?"

Dean examined the portion of typed matter, and shook his head.

"You must train yourself to observe