"Do I seem so?" he replied. "There is no person more sane than I. I require from you the formula of the new explosive, which you stole in Henry's restaurant eleven days ago."
The sense of mystery passed. It was simply trouble of the ordinary sort from an unexpected source.
"Dear me!" she murmured. "Every one seems interested in my little adventure. How did you hear about it?"
"I destroyed the cable telling me of all that happened only a few minutes ago," he explained. "It was the foolish talk of the young inventor which gave his secret to the world to scramble for."
"It was very clever of your informant," she remarked, "to suggest that I was the fortunate thief. Why not Oscar Fischer? It was his plot, not mine."
The eyes of the little Japanese seemed suddenly to narrow. He realised quite well that she was talking simply to gain time.
"Madam," he insisted, "the formula. It is for my country, and for my country I would risk much."
"I do not doubt it," she replied; "but if I hold it, I hold it for my country, too, and there is nothing you would risk for Japan from which I should shrink for America."
He laid his hands upon the table. She turned her ring and clenched her hand. She could see his spring coming, realised in those few seconds that here was an opponent of more desperate and subtle calibre than Joseph. Whether her wits might have failed her, fate remained her friend. There was a knock at the door.
"You hear?" she cried breathlessly. "There is some one there. Shall I call out?"