LITMIR.BIZ

      "Put that weapon on the table, give me your right hand, and you shall have the proofs you need," I answered.

      He hesitated, then changed the stiletto to his left hand, and gave me his right. I grasped it in the peculiar manner which I had never forgotten, and bent my head close to his. The next moment I had uttered the pass-word of the Brotherhood.

      "La Regina," I whispered.

      "E la regina," he replied, flinging the stiletto on the carpet.

      "Ah!" he continued, with an expression of the strongest relief, while he wiped the moisture from his forehead. "This is too wonderful. And now tell me, my friend, what your mission is? I knew you had stolen my syringe, but why did you do it? Why did you not reveal yourself to me before? You are, of course, under the Queen's orders?"

      "I am," I answered, "and her orders to me now are to take Lord Kairn home to England overland to-morrow morning."

      "Very well. Everything is finished—he will die in one month."

      "From Mediterranean fever? But it is not necessarily fatal," I continued.

      "That is true. It is not always fatal acquired in the ordinary way, but by our methods it is so."

      "Then you have administered more of the micro-organisms since Malta?"

      "Yes; I had another syringe in my case, and now nothing can save him. The fever will commence in six days from now."

      He paused for a moment or two.

      "It is very odd," he went on, "that I should have had no communication. I cannot understand it." A sudden flash of suspicion shot across his dark face. My heart sank as I saw it. It passed, however, the next instant; the man's words were courteous and quiet.

      "I of course accede to your proposition," he said: "everything is quite safe. This that I have done can never by any possibility be discovered. Madame is invincible. Have you yet seen Lord Kairn?"

      "Yes, and I have told him to be prepared to accompany me home to-morrow."

      "Very well."

      Dr. Fietta walked across the room, unlocked the door and threw it open.

      "Your plans will suit me admirably," he continued. "I shall stay on here for a few days more, as I have some private business to transact. To-night I shall sleep in peace. Your shadow has been haunting me for the last three days."

      I went from Fietta's room to the boy's. He was wide awake and started up when he saw me.

      "I have arranged everything, Cecil," I said, "and you are my charge now. I mean to take you to my room to sleep."

      "Oh," he answered, "I am glad. Perhaps I shall sleep better in your room. I am not afraid of you—I love you." His eyes, bright with affection, looked into mine. I lifted him into my arms, wrapped his dressing-gown over his shoulders, and conveyed him through the folding-doors, down the corridor, into the room I had secured for myself. There were two beds in the room, and I placed him in one.

      "I am so happy," he said, "I love you so much. Will you take me to Vesuvius in the morning, and then home in the evening?"

      "I will see about that. Now go to sleep," I answered.

      He closed his eyes with a sigh of pleasure. In ten minutes he was sound asleep. I was standing by him when there came a knock at the door. I went to open it. A waiter stood without. He held a salver in his hand. It contained a letter, also a sheet of paper and an envelope stamped with the name of the hotel.

      "From the doctor, to be delivered to the signor immediately," was the laconic remark.

      Still standing in the doorway, I took the letter from the tray, opened it, and read the following words:—

      "You have removed the boy and that action arouses my mistrust. I doubt your having received any Communication from Madame. If you wish me to believe that you are a bonâ fide member of the Brotherhood, return the boy to his own sleeping-room, immediately."

      I took a pencil out of my pocket and hastily wrote a few words on the sheet of paper, which had been sent for this purpose.

      "I retain the boy. You are welcome to draw your own conclusions."

      Folding up the paper I slipped it into the envelope, and wetting the gum with my tongue, fastened it together, and handed it to the waiter who withdrew. I re-entered my room and locked the door. To keep the boy was imperative, but there was little doubt that Fietta would now telegraph to Mme. Koluchy (the telegraphic office being open day and night) and find out the trick I was playing upon him. I considered whether I might not remove the boy there and then to another hotel, but decided that such a step would be useless. Once the emissaries of the Brotherhood were put upon my track the case for the child and myself would be all but hopeless.

      There was likely to be little sleep for me that night. I paced up and down my lofty room. My thoughts were keen and busy. After a time, however, a strange confusion seized me. One moment I thought of the child, the next of Mme. Koluchy, and then again I found myself pondering some abstruse and comparatively unimportant point in science, which I was perfecting at home. I shook myself free of these thoughts, to walk about again, to pause by the bedside of the child, to listen to his quiet breathing.

      Perfect peace reigned over his little face. He had resigned himself to me, his terrors were things of the past, and he was absolutely happy. Then once again that queer confusion of brain returned. I wondered what I was doing, and why I was anxious about the boy. Finally I sank upon the bed at the farther

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