"Why, the Rittmeister will have finished his work in the Hamadian Desert this afternoon. His instructions are to resign the Sultanate of those regions for the present, for the skies will be thick with British scouts by to-morrow."
"But then he goes to Ireland to work with the revolutionists there, does he not, mein herr?"
"Ja! ja! but I will ask him to call here for a day or two before he proceeds. He will have much to tell us, and Spitzer, Carl and Max would like to see these dangerous opponents safely out of the way, for at present they are the only enemies to be considered."
"Gut!" ejaculated Strauss, catching something of the professor's enthusiasm.
Keane would have intervened before this, for he had noted Sharpe's impatience, but he intimated as well as he could by mute signs and otherwise, that the fiend was doing their work for them.
"Let him send this message first," he whispered in his companion's ears, "and then----" But the sentence was completed by further cabalistic signs.
Again the professor turned to the keys, and sent his last instructions through the ether waves to his confederate, the brigand of the eastern skies.
CHAPTER XX
"HANDS UP!"
"Haende in die hohe!" cried Keane as soon as the last message had been sent.