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Fischer seemed still at a loss for words. "I can assure you," he said at last fervently, "that if that packet was stolen from Miss Van Teyl by Nikasti, it was done without my instigation. It is as much a surprise to me as to any of you. We can congratulate ourselves that it is not on the way to Japan." Pamela nodded. "He is speaking the truth," she asserted.
"I will admit that I brought Nikasti here with a purpose, but upon my honour I swear that until this evening I never dreamed that he even knew of the existence of the formula." "Oh! we are not the only people in the world who are clever," Pamela declared, with an unnatural little laugh. "The first man who took note of Sandy Graham's silly words as he rushed into Henry's was Baron Sunyea.
"You are aware," Von Schwerin continued, "that the Imperial Government of Germany has already made formal overtures, through a third party, to the Emperor of Japan with reference to an alteration in our relations?" "There was talk of this in Tokio," Nikasti observed softly. "Japan, however, is under obligations treaty obligations. Her honour demands that these should be kept."
"You leave word to have your people let you know directly she arrives," Fischer advised, "and come along with me." Van Teyl allowed himself to be led towards the door. Nikasti, with a due sense of his new duties, glided past them, rang for the lift, and watched them descend. Fischer turned at once towards the dining room.
"And the autograph letter?" "That I have," Fischer announced. "I will fetch Nikasti." He crossed the room and opened the door leading into the bedchambers. "Are you there, Kato?" he cried. "I am coming, sir," was the instant reply. Nikasti appeared, a few moments later. He was carrying a dress coat on his arm, and he held a clothes brush in his hand.
Von Schwerin drew his chair a little nearer. "I plunge at once," he said, "into the middle of things. There is always the fear that we may be disturbed." Nikasti inclined his head. "It is best," he agreed.
"So that is the letter which you are taking to your Emperor!" Lutchester said. "You think it worth while! You can really see the German fleet steaming past the British Isles, out into the Atlantic, and bombarding New York!" Nikasti made no reply. Lutchester looked at him for a moment thoughtfully. There was a light once more in the beaten man's eyes a queer, secretive gleam.
It was a photograph of that other autograph letter. The one which he had given to Nikasti to carry to Japan lay gross sacrilege! about him in small pieces. There was no other line, no message, nothing but this damning proof of his duplicity. A kind of mental torture seized him. He fought like a caged man for some way out.
Asia concerned us very little. We looked upon the destruction of our interests there in the same spirit as that with which we contemplated the loss of our colonies. All that might happen would be temporary. Our influence in Asia, our colonies, will remain with us or perish, according to the result of the war in Europe. But our statesmen overlooked one thing." "Our factories," Nikasti murmured.
"You don't need to go on with this business now that we have had our little talk," he remonstrated. "I cannot leave until the twentieth," Nikasti replied. "I think it best that I remain here. Your cocktail, sir." Fischer accepted the glass with a good-humoured little laugh. "Well," he said, "I suppose you know what you want to do, but it seems to me unnecessary. Say, is anything wrong with you?
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