"Because I am going to tell you secrets," I answered, "and because there are men in the world, men in London close to us, who, if they knew, would kill us both on sight."
"I am not a coward, if that is what you mean," Gilbert answered. "You ought to know that. Go ahead."
I told him everything. When I had finished he sat staring at me like a man stupefied.
"I suppose," he said at last, looking from his extinct cigar into my face, "that I am not by any chance dreaming? It is you, my cousin Hardross, who has told me this amazing story."
"Every word of which is true," I answered firmly, and I knew at once that he believed me.
"Well," he said, after a short silence, "where do I come in?"
"You fill a most important place," I answered. "I want you to see Polloch for us."
He nodded.
"Am. I to tell him everything?"
"Everything," I answered. "We have our Secret Service, I suppose, the same as other countries. It ought to be easy enough for them to act on our information."