“I wonder you ever came back here, then.”

“I was some time there, in Soho. It was in London, I suppose, you met Count Ladislas Tuleski?”

“There and in other places. Has he been arrested to-night?”

“No. He would have been, but some one gave him notice that his house was to be raided; and of course he fled.” He laughed as though this were a joke.

“Strange how these official secrets get tapped?” I said.

“The Fraternity has friends in many quarters.”

“Has it?”

He laughed again, rather drily, this time, and answered with a shrewd glance. “Of course you don’t know. Any one calling at the Count’s house at such a time would not.”

What was he driving at? His manner suggested more than a mere desire to pump me. I made no reply, waiting for him to develop the thing.

“My name is Christian Burski. You may know it,” he said next.