It was for very excellent reasons that Melun had not driven up to St. John's Wood to fetch Mme. Estelle to the Empire; and his caution in other matters thus saved him from an unpleasant cross-examination concerning Kathleen.

It is true that when Westerham had left the box Madame made several efforts to broach the subject, but Melun succeeded in steering clear of the matter until after they had left the theatre. As, however, the cab proceeded to Davies Street she made a further attempt to pin him down to the subject. But again Melun evaded it.

Few men knew better than Melun the damage that could be done one by a jealous woman, and as he sat alone that night over his whisky-and-soda, the obvious signs of jealousy which Marie had shown him caused him great disquiet.

From Madame, however, he turned to the more important business of deciding what he should do to bring the Premier to his knees without further delay. And it was a strange coincidence that just as Westerham was explaining to Lord Dunton his scheme for kidnapping the Prime Minister, Melun hit upon the plan of abducting Lady Kathleen as the surest means of inducing Lord Penshurst to surrender.

So each man in different parts of London worked out two similar schemes, which on the morrow were to clash and to produce an extraordinary sequence of events.

Melun sat till late perfecting his plan of abducting Lady Kathleen, but, turn and twist the matter though he might, he saw no means of carrying it through unless he sought Mme. Estelle's assistance.

Therefore he rose early in the morning, and was ringing at the bell of the villa in St. John's Wood before the neighbouring clocks were striking nine. He knew that the most favourable opportunity for his project would come shortly after noon, and even though Mme. Estelle consented to lend her aid there was still much to be done.

He entered the morning-room without ceremony, and, scarcely pausing to say “Good-morning,” drew a chair to the table at which Madame sat at breakfast.

“Marie,” he said, “the crisis in our fortunes has arrived to-day. I want all the help you can give me, and you will want all your nerve.”

Mme. Estelle eyed him calmly.

“Indeed,” she said. “But even though the crisis in our fortunes arrived within the next ten minutes there are certain questions which I must ask you first.”

Melun fidgeted impatiently. He realised that he could no longer baulk the question of Lady Kathleen, and the sooner he got himself out of the difficulty the better for his day's work.

“George,” said Madame, stretching out her right hand and brushing Melun's lightly with her fingers, “George, are you playing me false?”

“Playing you false?” he cried, with a fine show of indignation. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that either you have told me too much or too little. If I am to believe you, the Premier's secret which we hold is worth at least half a million of pounds. You say you are certain of the money, and that the moment it is yours we are to be married and leave this miserable mode of life. If this is so I am content. But now I hear other news. I hear that this is not the only price which you are asking for the return of the Premier's papers. I am told that as part of the bargain you are to be permitted to marry Lady Kathleen.”

Melun jumped out of his chair.

“It's a lie!” he shouted, “and I'll take my oath that that rattle-brained fool Westerham is responsible for your stupid fancies.”

“But are they fancies?” urged Madame.

“Fancies! Of course they are fancies. What good do you think it would do me to be tied to a girl like that? Surely half a million should content any man. I wish to be free to pursue my life with you. The sooner indeed I am free from all this business the better.

“Bagley and the rest of them can say what they please and shout as they please. They know nothing that can possibly betray me, and certainly nothing that can harm me. When he has paid the price you may be sure that Lord Penshurst will look to that.”

Madame Estelle looked greatly troubled.

“Are you sure, George,” she asked again, “that this is absolutely true? Oh! be sure that I dislike to distress you in this way, but I cannot help it. Up to the present I have found Sir Paul Westerham a most truthful man, and I don't see why he should be telling me falsehoods now.”

“You don't see why?” echoed Melun, with splendidly simulated scorn; “you don't see why? Of course you don't, because you are blind! Blind! You are blind with suspicion and distrust, and he, for his own ends, is simply playing on your fears. He wants to upset you, to put me out of court with you.

“If he can break our friendship, if he can sever the ties which bind us, then his task is the easier. Has it not occurred to you that he has been trying to turn your mind against me simply that he may, for his own ends, call you to his aid? Is it not so?”

For several minutes Mme. Estelle pulled her roll to pieces and made little pellets of the dough with her nervous fingers.

“Yes,” she said at last; “perhaps that is so. I have not looked at it in that light.”

“My dear Marie,” cried Melun, with a greater show of tenderness than he had yet exhibited, “surely I have been true enough and faithful enough all these years for you to believe me now. Indeed, you must believe in me, because if you don't believe in me and give me your support the cup of happiness which is so near our lips may be dashed away from them.

“Listen!” he went on, “and see whether I am speaking the truth or not.

“It is impossible for this business to drag on in this way any longer. I must bring matters to a head at once, and I see only one way to do it—I shall kidnap Lady Kathleen.”

Mme. Estelle started and looked at him, half in terror, half in admiration.

“It is a bold plan,” she said.

“A bold plan,” Melun agreed, “and a plan which must succeed if you will help me. The difficulty is to get the girl away, and I shall have to leave that entirely to you. What is more, there is very little time to be lost. The Cabinet meets at noon, and for a couple of hours after that Lord Penshurst will be busy with his colleagues. Consequently during that time Lady Kathleen will be alone.

“Fortunately I managed to put young Hilden out of the way, at least for a time, so that we shall be free of his prying and peeping and officiousness when you call to-day.”

“When I call to-day!” repeated Madame in tones of wonderment.

“Yes, yes,” continued Melun; “it is you who will have to call. As things are at present it is naturally impossible for me to show my face near Downing Street. With you, however, the matter is quite different. No one there knows you.

“Now I have left nothing to chance. Westerham, if you please, must go nosing around the garage in Rupert Street to find out where his car is. It had gone, of course, to Holyhead as the result of my instructions. The manager wired to the chauffeur at Chester to return to town at once. But I wired to Birmingham to stop it there. Crow went down and dismissed the chauffeur, saying that he came from Westerham. The car is now in Chelsea, and we shall have the pleasure of using it to-day. It is just the car we want, because for some reason or other Westerham had it fitted with blind shutters.”

Madame nodded her head.

“We will telephone to Westminster and get the car to meet us at Oxford Circus. You can go down to Downing Street, and I will take a taxicab to the Star and Garter, Richmond. When you get to No. 10 simply ask for the Lady Kathleen, but give no name and refuse your business. That will merely arouse her curiosity, and the fact that you come in such a car will certainly obtain you an audience.”

Melun then went on to give Madame various instructions, enjoining her not to talk to Lady Kathleen on the way down to Richmond.

They then took a cab to Oxford Circus together and telephoned from the District Messengers' office to the garage at Chelsea for the car to come on to them at once at Pagani's.

It was shortly after twelve o'clock when Westerham's car reached the famous restaurant in Great Portland Street.

Melun, as he took leave of Mme. Estelle, again enjoined her to silence; and though Madame promised that she would not discuss his affairs with Lady Kathleen, she was, if the truth were told, not quite decided whether she would keep her word.

Her arrival in Downing Street occasioned a little surprise and not a little curiosity on the part of the doorkeeper when she refused to give her name. Without much delay, however, she was shown into the long, old-fashioned drawing-room, and it was not many minutes before Lady Kathleen appeared.

Kathleen came into the room very quietly. The sudden alarms and excursions amid which she had lately lived were accustoming her to strange and unexpected events, and she instinctively guessed that the woman who awaited her in the drawing-room was in some way connected with her father's secret.

As she entered the room Mme. Estelle rose from her seat and bowed. She did not attempt to shake hands, nor, indeed, did Lady Kathleen make any demonstration of friendship.

During the short drive from Oxford Street Madame had rehearsed her little part to herself. Now she played it perfectly.

“Russia needs you,” she said.

Kathleen's face paled, and she drew back a step.

“I don't quite understand,” she said.

Madame smiled in quite a charming way. “Lady Kathleen,” she said, “I cannot explain very much, for I know very little. I was simply requested by the Russian Embassy to inform you that a special emissary from St. Petersburg asks to see you at once. Who he is,” Madame continued, shrugging her shoulders, “I really cannot say. Sometimes, you know, the Russian officials are mysterious, and I have only my work to do. I ask no questions; it is not my business.

“But this gentleman, whoever he may be, is seemingly fearful of being seen in London, and he has asked you to meet me at Richmond in an hour's time.”

“Whereabouts in Richmond?” asked Kathleen.

“At the Star and Garter Hotel. I was asked to assure you that in all probability he would not detain you long.”

Kathleen's heart now beat faster with hope and now slowly with fear. When she had left the Czar's cousin at Rouen that great personage had given no indication that there was anything further to be discussed. He had simply delivered his ultimatum and taken his way back to St. Petersburg.

Kathleen looked at the clock.

“I suppose,” she asked, “you do not know whether this gentleman would be likely to wait?”

“I am instructed,” replied Mme. Estelle, “that he cannot possibly wait. He is catching the three-o'clock mail back to France.”

It was certainly an exceedingly awkward position for a girl to be in. Hitherto she had undertaken no negotiations with the Czar's agents except on the advice of her father, and it seemed a remarkable thing that she should be sent for in this way in person.

That she could disturb her father was, of course, out of the question, and with some misgivings she decided that it would be best to accompany her mysterious visitor without further delay.

“I will be with you in a few moments,” she said, and passed out of the room to put on her outdoor things.

When she returned she found Madame already on her feet, as though anxious to depart—and anxious to depart she was.

From the beginning Mme. Estelle had cherished no liking for her mission, and the sight of Kathleen's pale and troubled beauty had unnerved her not a little. The place oppressed her.

She admitted to herself that her notions were entirely fanciful, but still the whole atmosphere of the rather sombre and old-fashioned drawing-room seemed charged with tragedy.

Kathleen preceded her visitor down the stairs, and then they entered the car. It was the Premier's official attendant who opened and shut the door of the motor for them. The chauffeur was apparently busy with the machinery, his head inside the bonnet.

Whatever small trouble the man was encountering with the engines was of short duration, for Kathleen had scarcely settled herself in her seat before the car began to move.

As the big motor car swung round into Whitehall a second car entered Downing Street and had to draw up short in order to avoid a collision. Kathleen, thinking that an accident was unavoidable, leant forward and looked out of the window, and, to her astonishment, she discerned the face of Westerham in the other car.

She drew back again with an exclamation, and though she set it down as imagination at the time, she had no doubt afterwards that as a matter of fact Mme. Estelle had become deathly pale.

The car proceeded at a rapid rate up Whitehall and turning along Pall Mall made its way into Piccadilly.

The run to Richmond was a smooth one, unmarked by any incident, and for the most part, both the women were profoundly silent.

Each, indeed, was occupied with her own thoughts. Mme. Estelle, as she cast furtive and sidelong glances at Lady Kathleen, became more jealous and a little more disinclined to believe Melun's protestations at every mile.

She would have given much to be able to ask Lady Kathleen point-blank whether or not Melun had made a marriage with her one of the conditions which he was seeking to foist on the Prime Minister. But she had the good sense to see that even a tentative question of this sort would instantly arouse Lady Kathleen's suspicions. Even as the pseudo agent of the Russian Government her knowledge of affairs could not be supposed to include a matter such as this.

Kathleen, for her part, had spent the time in trying to account for Westerham's presence in Downing Street. Presumably he was about to make some further effort to persuade her father of his bona fides. And she grew more unhappy as she thought what her father's answer would again inevitably be, and could only pray that Westerham might have sufficient forbearance to persevere in spite of the Premier's certain rudeness.

Presently Kathleen, watching from the window, saw the familiar shape of the Star and Garter come into view. Slightly to her surprise the motor-car did not slacken its speed, but went on through the gates of Richmond Park. Then, almost for the first time, she spoke to her companion.

“The man must have made a mistake,” she said; “he has passed the hotel.”

“Has he?” asked Madame, with an air of astonishment. “That is rather strange. He must know the way. Perhaps there is something wrong with the machinery.”

But Lady Kathleen shook her head, for she knew enough of motoring to appreciate the steady purr of an engine which is running well.

Suddenly the brakes were applied with considerable force and the car came to a rapid standstill.

Then the door swung open and a man leaped in.

Almost instantly he pulled up the blind shutters which covered the glass and shut out all the light, so that the interior of the car was in complete darkness.

Kathleen gave a little cry and shrank back against the cushions. For in the darkness she felt the car give a great bound onwards and rush down the hill.

She heard a low laugh, and then the scraping of a hand as it fumbled for the electric button.

The hand groping in the darkness found the switch and flooded the car with light.

Kathleen sat bolt upright and uttered a second cry as she saw grinning at her from the opposite side of the car the evil face of Melun.