"Always the house I am hoping to end my days in," he answered. "But let me tell you about a villa I had in Cannes, fifteen years ago. People used to speak of it as one of the world's treasures."
When the two men were seated alone over their coffee, Nigel passed Chalmers' note and the enclosure across to his companion.
"You remember I told you about Chalmers' friend, Jesson, the secret service man who came over to us?" he said. "Chalmers has just sent me round this."
Karschoff nodded and studied the message through his great horn-rimmed eyeglass.
"I thought that he was going to Russia for you," he said.
"So he did. He must have gone on from there."
"And the message comes from Southern China," Prince Karschoff reflected.
Nigel was deep in thought. China, Russia, Germany! Prince Shan in England, negotiating with Immelan! And behind, sinister, menacing, mysterious—Japan!
"Supposing," he propounded at last, "there really does exist a secret treaty between China and Japan?"
"If there is," Prince Karschoff observed, "one can easily understand what Immelan has been at. Prince Shan can command the whole of Asia. I know they are afraid of something of the sort in the States. An American who was in the club yesterday told us they had spent over a hundred millions on their west coast fortifications in the last two years."