"Well--they did," replied old Sam, smiling.

"Did? What, have they gone under?"

"No. Only Hengelmann has been in his coffin fully two years, and the Baron died at Nice last winter."

"What?" cried Max, starting forward.

"I repeat what I say, Mr Barclay. Your friend Adam has been indulging in a pretty fiction."

"Are you sure? Are you quite sure they are dead?"

"Most certainly. I was staying in the same hotel at Nice when the Baron died, and I followed him to the grave. He was a great friend of mine."

Max Barclay sat stunned. Until that moment he had believed in Jean Adam and his plausible tales, but he now saw how very cleverly he had been deceived and imposed upon.

"You're surprised," he laughed. "But you must remember that you can get a decent suit of gentlemanly clothes for five pounds, and visiting-cards are only two shillings a hundred. People so often overlook those two important facts in life. Thousands of men can put off their ident.i.ty with their clothes."

"But Adam--do you happen to know him?" Max asked. "If you do, it will surely be a very friendly act to tell me the truth."

"Well," replied the elder man with some hesitancy, "I may as well tell you at once that the Sultan has never given any concession for the railway from Nisch to San Giovanni di Medua to cross Turkish territory-- and will never give it. He fears Bulgaria and Servia too much, for he never knows what Power may be behind them. And, after all, who can blame him? Why should he open his gates to an enemy? Albania is always in unrest, for in the north the Christians predominate, and there is bound to be trouble ere long."

"Then you believe that the whole thing is a fiction?"

"Most certainly it is. If there was any idea of the Sultan giving an irade, I should most certainly know of it. I have good agents in Constantinople. No. Take it from me that the concession will never be given. It is not to Turkey's interest to allow the development of Servia and Bulgaria, therefore your friend's pretty tale is all a fairy story."

"Then why is he pressing me to go out to Constantinople?" Max asked.

Statham shrugged his shoulders, indicative of ignorance.

"Perhaps he thinks you will plank down money?" he suggested.

"He wants nothing until I myself am satisfied with the _bona fides_ of the business."

"Stuff on his part, most likely. He's a past-master of the art."

"How well do you know him?"

"Sufficiently well to have nothing to do with him."

"Then that accounts for his refusal to allow me to confide in you," said Barclay. "I see the reason now."

"Of course, act just as you think fit. Only recollect that what I've told you is bed-rock fact. The man who calls himself Adam is a person to be avoided."

"Have you had dealings with him?"

"Just once--and they had a very unpleasant result."

He reflected upon certain remarks and criticisms which the Frenchman had uttered concerning Statham and his normal methods. In the light of what he now knew, he saw that the two men were enemies. It seemed as though one man wished to tell him something, and yet was hesitant.

"Have you put any money into the scheme?" the millionaire asked.

"Not yet."

"Then don't. Tell him to take it somewhere else. Better still, tell him to bring it to me. You need not, however, say that it is I who warned you. Leave him in the dark in that direction. He's a clever fellow--extraordinarily clever. Who is with him now?"

"Well, he has a friend named Lyle--a mining engineer."

"Leonard Lyle--a hunchback?" asked Statham quickly.

The millionaire's countenance went a trifle paler, and about the corners of his thin lips was a hard expression. To him, the seriousness of the conspiracy was only too apparent.

Those two men intended that he should be driven to take his own life--to die an ignominious death.

"You've spoken to this man Lyle?" he asked in as steady a voice as he could.

"Once or twice. He seems to possess a very intimate knowledge of Servia, Bulgaria, and European Turkey. Is he an adventurer like Adam?"

"Not exactly," was the rather ambiguous reply. "But his a.s.sociation with Adam shows plainly that fraud is intended."

"But why does he want me to go post-haste out to Turkey?" queried Max, who had risen from his chair in the excitement of this sudden revelation which caused his brilliant scheme to vanish into thin air.

"To induce confidence, I expect he would have introduced you to some men wearing fezzes, and declared them to be Pashas high in favour at the Yildiz Kiosk. Then before you left Constantinople he would have held you to your bargain to put money into the thing. Oh! never fear, you would have fallen a victim in one way or another. So it's best that you should know the character of the two men with whom you are dealing.

Take my advice; treat them with caution, but refuse to stir from London.

They will, no doubt, use every persuasion to induce you to go, but your best course is to hear all their arguments, watch the gradual development of their scheme, and inform me of it. Will you do it?"

"Will my information a.s.sist you in any way, Mr Statham?"

"Yes, it will--very materially," the old man answered.

"I have revealed to you the truth, and I ask you, in return, to render me this little a.s.sistance. What I desire to know, is their movements daily, and how they intend to act."

"Towards whom?"

"Towards myself."

"Then they are a.s.sociated against you, you believe?"

"I suspect them to be," the old man replied. "I know them to be my enemies. They are, like thousands of other men, jealous of my success, and believe they have a grievance against me--one that is entirely unfounded."

"And if I do this will you a.s.sist me to obtain knowledge of the reason why Marion Rolfe has been dismissed?" asked Max eagerly.

The old man hesitated, but only for a second. It was easy enough to give him a letter to Cunnington, and afterwards to telephone to Oxford Street instructions to the head of the firm to refuse a reply.

So, consenting, he took a sheet of note-paper, and scribbled a few lines of request to Mr Cunnington, which he handed to Max, saying:

"There, I hope that will have the desired effect, Mr Barclay. On your part, remember, you will keep in with Adam and Lyle, and give me all the information you can gather. I know how to repay a friendly service rendered to me, so you are, no doubt, well aware. You will be welcome here at any hour. I shall tell Levi to admit you."

"That's a bargain," the younger man a.s.serted. "When will Rolfe return?"