‘D——n Sir Arthur Custer!’ said the master of the house. ‘Here, Oakley, get out of this! I must see him.’
Oakley got out, and Sir Arthur was ushered in. Sir Arthur looked at his host queerly, and then with much care shut the door.
‘I say, Lock,’ he said, putting his silk hat on the table, ‘it seems to me we’re in a devil of a hole.’
‘Indeed!’ said Simon Lock cautiously.
‘Yes,’ Sir Arthur insisted. ‘Of course I’m sure that when you asked me to join you in this Princesse affair——’
‘You will pardon me, Sir Arthur,’ said Lock, stopping him very politely and formally, ‘I did not ask you to join me. It was yourself who suggested that.’
‘Ah, well!’ said Sir Arthur, with a little less assurance, ‘we won’t quarrel about that. At any rate, I understood from you that we were in for a deuced good thing.’
‘That is so,’ Lock returned. ‘By the way, sit down, Sir Arthur, and remain calm.’
‘Am I not calm?’ asked the member of Parliament, whose pomposity was unaccustomed to be trifled with.
‘Certainly you are calm. I merely ask you to remain so. Now to come to the business in hand. I said, you remind me, that we were in for a good thing. So we were. But some secret force has been working against us. If I could unmask that secret force all would be well, for I could then bring pressure to bear that would effectually—— You understand?’