"If he wanted to know my movements he might have called at Dover Street," Max remarked thoughtfully, the recollection of that night in Cromwell Road arising within him.

"He seemed very busy, and said he had not a moment to spare. He was probably going north again. They have, he told me, some big order from Italy at the locomotive works."

"I thought Statham couldn't do without him," remarked Max. "Nowadays, however, he seems always travelling."

"He's awfully kind to me--gave me a five-pound note this afternoon."

"What did he say about me?" inquired Max.

"Oh! nothing very much. He asked me, among other things, whether I knew where you were on the night of the disappearance of the Doctor and his daughter."

Max started.

"And what did you reply?"

"That I hadn't the slightest idea. I never saw you that evening," was the girl's frank response.

Her lover nodded thoughtfully. It was now plain that Charlie suspected that he had detected him leaving the house and was endeavouring to either confirm his suspicion or dismiss it.

"Did he tell you to-day where he was going?"

"Back to Glasgow, I believe--but only for two days."

Max was seated at the end of the second row of the stalls, and beyond Marion were three or four vacant seats. At this juncture their conversation was interrupted by a man in well-cut evening-dress, his crush hat beneath his arms, advancing down the gangway and putting his hand out heartily to Max, exclaiming--

"My dear Barclay! Excuse me, but I want very much a few words with you to-night, on a matter of great importance." Then, glancing at Marion, he added: "I trust that Mademoiselle will forgive this intrusion?"

The girl glanced at the new-comer, while her lover, taking the man's hand, said--

"My dear Adam, I, too, wanted to see you, and intended to call to-morrow. You are not intruding in the least. Here's a seat. Allow me to introduce Miss Rolfe--Mr Jean Adam."

The man of double personality bowed again, and pa.s.sing Marion and her lover, seated himself at her side, commencing to chat merrily, and explaining that he had recognised Max from the circle above. He had, it appeared, been to Dover Street an hour before, and Max's man had told him where his master was spending the evening.

Marion rather liked him. Max had already told her of this Frenchman who spoke English so well, and with whom he was doing business. In his speech he had the air and polish of the true cosmopolitan, and he also possessed a keen sense of humour.

Presently Marion, glancing again at her watch, declared that she must leave. Max scarcely ever took her home. He always put her into a cab, and she descended at the corner of the street off Oxford Street, where Cunnington's a.s.sistants had their big barrack-like dwelling, and walked home alone. It was her wish to do so, and he respected it.

Therefore all three rose, and Max went outside with her and put her into a cab, promising to meet her on the following evening. In the bustle of Leicester Square at that hour, he could not kiss her; but as their hands grasped, their eyes met in a glance which both knew was one of trust and mutual affection.

And so they parted, Max returning to the lounge where the Frenchman, Jean Adam, _alias_ the Englishman John Adams, awaited him.

They had a drink at the American bar, and then promenaded up and down in the gay crowd that nightly a.s.sembles in that popular resort. Max nodded to one or two men he knew--clubmen and _habitues_ like himself, and then, after the show was over, they took a cab down to the Savoy to supper.

The gay restaurant, with its crimson carpet and white decorations was crowded. To Gustave, who allotted the tables, Max was well-known, therefore a table for two in the left-hand corner of the big room--the table he usually occupied--was instantly secured, and the couple who had engaged were moved elsewhere. In the season Max had supper there on an average three nights a week, for at the Savoy one meets all one's friends, and there is always music, life, and brightness after the theatre, until the licensing regulations cut off the merriment so abruptly.

That night was no exception. The place was filled to overflowing with the smart world, together with many American visitors, the latest musical-comedy actresses and their male appendages, country cousins, men whose names were household words, and women whose pasts had appeared in black and white in the newspapers. A strange crowd, surely. Half the people were known to each other by sight, if not personally, and the other half were mere onlookers, filled with curiosity when Lord This or Dolly That were pointed out to them.

Max and Jean Adam were seated with a bottle of Krug between them when the former exclaimed--

"Well, how does our business go?"

"That's the reason I wanted to see you to-night," was his companion's reply with just a slight French accent. "I had some news from Constantinople to-day--confidential news from the Palace," he added in an undertone, bending across the table. "I want you to read it and give your opinion." And producing an envelope and letter on thin paper closely written in French, he handed it across to Barclay, as he added: "Now what is written there is the bed-rock fact, I know from independent inquiries I have made in an entirely different quarter."

Between mouthfuls of the perfectly-cooked _filet de sole_ placed before him Max read the letter carefully. It was signed "your devoted friend Osman," and was evidently from a Turkish official at the Yildiz Kiosk.

Briefly, it was to the effect that the _irade_ of the Sultan for the construction of the railway from Nisch in Servia to San Giovanni di Medua, on the Adriatic, was in the hands of Muhil Pasha, one of his Majesty's most intimate officials, and had been granted to him for services rendered in the Asiatic provinces.

Muhil had offered to part with it for twelve thousand pounds sterling, and that the agent of a French Company had arrived in Constantinople in order to treat with him. Muhil, however, had no love for the French, since he was Ottoman Amba.s.sador in Paris a few years ago, and got into disgrace there, hence he would be much more ready to sell to an English syndicate.

The letter of Osman concluded by urging Adam to send instructions at once to a certain box at the British post-office in Constantinople, and to if possible secure the valuable doc.u.ment which would enable a line of railway to be built which would pay its shareholders enormously.

"Well," exclaimed Max, as he replaced the letter in its envelope, noting the surcharge in black--"1 piastre"--upon the blue English stamp. "What shall you do?"

"Do? Why we must get the twelve thousand, of course. It's a mere bagatelle compared with the magnitude of the business. I've got some reports in my overcoat pocket which I'll show you after supper. We must get the thing through, my dear Barclay. There's a big fortune in it for both of us--a huge fortune. Why, for the past ten years every diplomat at the Sublime Porte has been at work to get it through, but has been unsuccessful. The Sultan has always refused to let the line run through Turkish territory, fearing lest it should be used for military transport in the event of another war. His Majesty is not particularly partial to Austria, Servia, or Bulgaria, you know," he laughed.

"And hardly surprising, in view of past events, eh?" exclaimed Max, entirely ignorant of the real character of this man, who seemed a smart man of business combined with a genial companion. Adam was a past-master in the art of fraud. He did not press the point, but merely went on with his supper, swallowed a gla.s.s of champagne, and turned the conversation by admiring the graceful carriage of the head of a girl sitting near with a wreath of forget-me-nots across her fluffy fair hair.

"Yes," replied Max. "The poise of her head is full of grace, but--well, her face is like the carved handle of an umbrella!" Whereat his companion laughed heartily. Barclay was full of quaint expressions, and of a quiet but biting sarcasm. Some of his _bons mots_ had been repeated from month to mouth in the clubs until they became almost popular sayings. He was now in love entirely and devotedly with Marion, and no other woman of the thousand who pa.s.sed before his eyes and smiled into his face had the least attraction for him.

A moment later a pretty girl in pink, the Honourable Eva Townley, who was at supper with her mother and same friends, bowed to him and laughed, while another woman, the rather go-ahead wife of a leader at the Chancery Bar, waved a menu at him.

Society knew Max, and many a woman had set her cap at him, hoping to capture the tall, well-set-up and easy-going young fellow, together with the ease and comfort which his substantial estates would afford.

Max, however, had done a few years of town life. He had become _blase_ and nauseated. Since he had met Marion Rolfe the quiet, modest, una.s.suming and hard-working shop-a.s.sistant, the _haute monde_ bored him more than ever. He went only where he was compelled, yet he nowadays preferred the cheap Italian restaurant and Marion's society to the tables of the rich with their ugly women striving to fascinate, and their small-talk of scandal, gossip and cruel innuendo.

There is surely no world in the world like that of London--nothing so complex, so tragic, and yet so grimly humorous, so soul-killing, and yet so reckless as our little, lax world of vanity and display that calls itself Society, the world which the _nouveau riche_ are ever seeking to enter by the back-door, and which the suburbs rush to see portrayed upon the stage of the theatre.

Everywhere the manner and morals of Mayfair are aped nowadays. Mrs Browne-Smythe, the City clerk's wife of tattling Tooting, has her "day,"

and gives her bridge-parties just as does the d.u.c.h.ess of Dorsetshire in Grosvenor Square; and Mrs Claude Greene, the wife of the wholesale butcher, who was once a barmaid near the Meat Market, and now lives in matrimonial felicity in cliquey Clapham, "requests the company of" upon the self-same cards and with the self-same formula as the wife of Jimmy James the South African magnate in Park Lane.

Max, glad that supper was over, rose and walked with his friend out into the big lounge where the Roumanian band were playing weird gipsy melodies, and sat at one of the little tables to smoke and sip Grand Marnier cordon rouge, being joined a few moments later by a couple of men whom he knew at the club, and who appeared to be at a loose end.

At last the lights were turned down as signal that in five minutes it would be closing time, and then rifling, Max, ignorant of the ingenious plot, invited his friend Adam round to Dover Street for a final smoke.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

EXPLAINS JEAN ADAM'S SUGGESTION.

Over whiskey and soda in Barclay's chambers, Jean Adam pushed his sinister plans a trifle further.

He was aware that Max had taken the opinion of a man he knew on the Stock Exchange as to the probable value of the concession for the Danube-Adriatic Railway, and that his reply had been highly favourable.

Therefore he was confident that such an opportunity of making money by an honest deal Max would not let slip.

They had known each other several months, and Adam, with his engaging manner and courteous bearing, had wormed himself into the younger man's confidence. A dozen times Max had been his host, but on each occasion the other took good care to quickly return the hospitality. To Max he represented himself as resident in Constantinople. A few years ago he had been fortunate enough to obtain a concession from the Ottoman Government which, being floated in Paris, had placed him in a very comfortable position; and he was now about to aim for bigger and more lucrative things.

"You see," he was saying as he produced an official report to the Foreign Office--a pamphlet-like doc.u.ment in a blue paper cover--"here is what our consul in Belgrade reported on the scheme two years ago. Such a line, he says, would tap nearly half the trade that now goes to Odessa, besides giving Servia a seaport. It will be the biggest thing in railways for years, depend upon it."

Max went to the writing-table, where the lamp was burning, and glanced through the paragraphs of the consular report and several other printed doc.u.ments which his friend handed to him in succession. Then Adam produced a map, and upon it traced the route of the proposed line.