"Well, and if I did—what is it to you?"
"Nothing, my friend. Nothing. I come back to my original warning. Keep a close eye on young Imrey and Anna Heves, and above all keep a close eye on Blakeney."
"That young blackguard?"
"Yes, that young blackguard! He may be playing a double game, you know. I suppose he is still in Cluj?"
"I thought of that," Naniescu broke in curtly, "so I have had Imrey and the Heves girl transferred to Sót."
"Sót? Isn't that rather near the frontier?"
"Thirty kilomètres."
"But why Sót?"
"We have commandeered a château there, which we use as a prison for political offenders. We chose it because it stands alone in an out-of-the-way part of the country, and it saves the nuisance of public manifestations and disturbances when a prisoner who happens to have been popular is condemned. We try them by a military tribunal which holds its sittings at Sót, and if an execution is imperative—well, it is done without any fuss."
"I see. Well," Number Ten went on, as he rose to take his leave, "I need not detain you any longer. Let me assure you," he concluded, with his habitual sardonic smile, "that I shall not now think of interfering with any of the measures which you have adopted to stop Lady Tarkington from running after her manuscript."