Reflect for a moment."

"I wish you could meet my father," she said.

"Well, if he'd really like to see me, perhaps I might call upon him."

"He wants so much to know you. He was only saying so when we sat together last night after dinner."

"But you know, Miss Gwen, I'm not the sort of man that he would care to a.s.sociate with."

"You have been my friend and protector, Mr Mullet, and surely that is sufficient I have always found you a gentleman--more so than many others who pose as honest men."

"Well," he said. "I don't pose. I've told you the simple truth."

"And I admire you for it. You once said you'd tell me all about your own little daughter."

He was silent for a moment, and she saw she had touched a tender chord in his memory.

"I'll tell you about little Aggie one day; not now, please, Miss Griffin."

"Well, tell me, then, why your friends are so antagonistic towards my father?"

"For several reasons. One is that the man you don't like--the one with the red-face--is a fierce hater of the Jewish race. His own avarice knows no bounds, and he has sworn to recover the treasure of Israel if it still exists and when recovered he will break up and melt the sacred vessels and destroy the sacred relies in order to exhibit to the Jews his malice and his power."

"Why, it would be disgraceful to desecrate such objects--even though he is a Gentile."

"Certainly. But your father's known leaning towards the Jews--his friendship with certain Rabbis, and the a.s.sistance he has once or twice rendered the Jewish community in London, have aroused the ire of this man, who is now his bitterest and most unscrupulous opponent."

"Then you can a.s.sist us, Mr Mullet--if you will."

"I fear that is impossible--certainly not openly," was his reply.

"Personally, I would not lift a finger to help one whose fixed idea is despoliation and desecration of the sacred objects. My sympathies, my dear Miss Gwen, are entirely with you in your own unfortunate position, and with your father in his strenuous efforts to discover the key to this cipher, and afterwards place the expedition to Palestine upon a firm business basis, the most sacred treasures to be handed over to their rightful owners, the Jews."

"Why does this man, whose name you refuse to tell me, so hate the Jews?"

"Because, in certain of his huge financial dealings, they have actually ousted him by their shrewdness combined with honesty," he answered. "It has ever been, and still is, the accepted fashion to cast opprobrium upon the Jews. Yet, in my varied career, I have often found a Jew more honest than a Christian, and certainly he never hides dishonesty beneath a cloak of religion in which he does not believe, as do so many of your so-called Christians in the City."

"Then you are, like my father, an admirer of the Hebrew race?" she said, rather surprised.

"I am. In them as a cla.s.s I find no cant or hypocrisy, no humbug of their clerical life as we have it, alas! apparent so often in our own churches, while among the Jews themselves a helpful hand is outstretched everywhere. They settle their own quarrels in their own courts of law and they adhere strictly to their religious teaching. Of course, there are good and bad Jews, as there are good and bad Christians. But with the anti-Jewish feeling so apparent everywhere throughout Europe, I have nothing in common."

"And because of that, Mr Mullet, you will a.s.sist us--won't you?" she urged.

The red-haired adventurer hesitated.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

IN WHICH A DESPERATE GAME IS PLAYED.

"To serve you, Miss Gwen, and to return a favour to my friend the Doctor, I'll keep you informed of what transpires on our side," he promised at last. "I'd like to call and see your father. When's the best time?"

"He will be pleased to see you at any time you may appoint! Why not ring me up on the telephone--if you are not able to make an appointment now?"

"Very well," he replied, "I will."

He saw that she wanted to ask him something, but was hesitating, as though not daring to put her question.

At last she asked:

"Mr Mullet, will you not reveal to me in confidence who it is who is thus working against us?"

"A person of highest reputation as far as financial reputation in London goes, and of enormous influence. He has at his service every power that wealth can command."

"And is he nameless?"

"Alas! he must be," was "Red Mullet's" decisive answer. The truth was that he feared to tell the girl, lest her surprise might lead her to expose the secret, which must at once reflect upon herself. He was glad that she had not recognised Challas from the many photographs which so constantly appeared in the ill.u.s.trated papers.

A door somewhere in the small flat clicked again, but neither took any notice of it, attributing it to the wind from the open window.

They had no suspicion of an eavesdropper who had silently entered after them with the latch-key he possessed, and had just as silently left again, and crept down the stairs.

"Miss Gwen," exclaimed her friend a few moments later, "I would really urge you to have a care of yourself. Your enemies evidently mean mischief. You have, by a blackguardly ruse, been parted from the man you love--hence you are defenceless."

"Except for you--my true friend."

"I may have to leave London suddenly, while at any moment, you may, if you are not careful, fall again into the net they will, no doubt, spread and cleverly conceal. They fear your father and his friends, and from him will demand a price for you--a price for your honour, most likely."

"What do you mean?" she cried, starting, and staring at him.

"I am compelled to speak frankly, Miss Gwen; please forgive me," he said. "I know these men, remember. I know they will hesitate at nothing in order to gain their dastardly ends. They will compel your father to pay the price--and it will be the relinquishing of the struggle, and the leaving of it to them."

"We will never relinquish it!" declared the girl. "But do have a care of yourself," urged the man with the bristly moustache in deep earnestness. "If you again fall into the hands of these two men, you will not, I fear, escape without disaster."

"I know that, alas! only too well. I owe everything to your kindness and the pity you had for me. How can I ever sufficiently repay you?"

"You are now repairing me--repaying me with all you love most dearly.

Your silence has cost you your lover."

She sighed, and hot tears rose to her splendid eyes. He was quick to notice her sudden change, and deftly turned the conversation into a different channel.

Then, when he had smoked another cigarette, chatting the while, he reminded her to tell her father of Erich Haupt, and to say that he, "Red Mullet", would call on the following day.

At last they descended together into the street, and at the corner of Oxford Street entered into a taxi-cab in which they drove back to Notting Hill Gate station.

There he raised his hat as she descended and hurried across into Pembridge Gardens, while he gave the man directions to return to his own chambers.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, aloud, as they went along the Bayswater Road with the horn "honking."

"The whole situation is now a terribly complicated one. To throw in my lot with the Professor and his daughter would mean a `stretch' for me, without a doubt. Challas is vindictive, because I allowed her to escape from his infernal clutches. He meant to serve her the same as he did that poor young German girl! Hang me! I may be an outsider, but I'm not going to stand by and see another woman fall a victim. Now what is the best game to play in the interests of Griffin and Diamond? Stand by, watch old Erich, and if he gets hold of anything tangible, give it to them at once. That's the only way that I can see. Yet--yet I may already be suspected of playing a double game--and if I am, it means that I'll be given away to the police at the first opportunity. No," he added with great bitterness, "in this game Felix Challas and Jim Jannaway hold all the cards. Money talks here, and it does always," he sighed.