"I am not trying it," he protested.
"Then don't pretend that von Felsen isn't in all this with you. I know too much. And now, look here, I'll tell you the real object of this visit. Von Felsen is trying a fool's game with me, and it has to stop. I know he daren't go against you, Ziegler, and you daren't go against me; even if your friendship for me were less than it is."
My tone alarmed him. "What is he doing? I have influence with him, of course."
"What he is doing may turn out to touch you pretty closely; but never mind what it is for the present. Give me a line to him--that I am your friend and that anything he does against me is the same as if done against you."
"Of course I will," he consented. He wrote a few lines quickly and handed them to me.
MY DEAR HUGO,--
"Herr Bastable is a great friend of mine. Any service to him is a service to me; and the reverse.
"EPHRAIM ZIEGLER."
"That will do. And now a last word. Not a syllable to him or any one of what has passed between us to-day."
"I give you my honour, my dear Herr Bastable," he agreed readily.