"To arrange for the assassination?" asked the senator, grimly.

"To arrange for the attempt at it-if they dare such a thing. But I have made my plans carefully, senator. I don't think you need fear the outcome of them."

"Oh, I don't. Not in the least."

"But you are getting impatient; eh?"

"Yes. I admit it."

"Curb your impatience, then. We will start presently. Before we go I wish to tell you something."

"Well?"

"I do so more to kill time than anything else."

"Yes."

"I knew, of course, when I was sent for, that it must be this same man Mustushimi I would be up against. I knew him to be a master at his trade, although personally a coward, and, physically, of no account whatever. I had him handicapped at the start by knowing that he is afraid of me."