"Then he went to Paris, as your Excellency is probably aware."
"Well?"
"Perhaps your Excellency supposes that he occupied himself with the frivolities of the gay capital of France—dinners, theatres, dances, races? But no! He had two enemies now, England and Turkey, and he presumed to think he could punish both."
"How? In what way?"
"By founding a secret society for the conquest of Syria, Palestine and Arabia, and the establishment of a great Arab Empire with himself as its Caliph and Cairo as its capital."
"Well? What happened?"
"Need I say what happened, your Excellency? By means of his great wealth he was able to send out hundreds of paid emissaries to every part of the Arabic world, and Ishmael Ameer was the first of them."
The Consul-General was at length startled out of all his composure.
"Can you prove this?" he said.
"Your Excellency, if I say anything I can always prove it."