The second letter he sent to the head of the English Secret Service with a request that it should be shown to Greatorex. The motive of the second letter was the same as the first, that Guy Rossett should be got out of harm’s way, before an anarchist knife should be dug in his ribs.
Mary took the letter to her father. She was very genuinely alarmed; she also had a faint recollection of the swarthy young Spaniard who had sat at an adjoining table on that well-remembered evening at the Savoy. He had mentioned in his letter that he was a member of the Secret Service. She was disposed to trust him.
She thrust the letter into Lord Saxham’s hand with an almost tragic gesture.
“Now, father, you can see what you have done by sending him over to Spain. That wily old Greatorex wanted to use him just for his own purpose, and you fell in pat with his scheme.”
Lord Saxham read the letter, and his face blanched. “Oh, my poor boy,” he groaned.
His daughter loved him, but at the bottom of her heart there was always a little good-humoured contempt. He was so terribly weak. Headstrong, violent, and explosive, but always weak.
Lady Mary spoke irritably; she was tender and compassionate, but not in the least weak.
“We have got to act, father, and act immediately. Guy must come back at once. You must see this artful old Greatorex to-morrow.”
Saxham promised that he would see Greatorex to-morrow. He ’phoned up that important personage, and fixed an appointment.
The two men met. By that time Greatorex had received Moreno’s letter from the head of the Secret Service. He knew, therefore, exactly what his old friend Lord Saxham had come about.