The girl stood motionless until he pulled up an easy chair for her, then he found another for himself. She let slip her furs, folded her hands around the bunch of violets and waited.
“Now,” he said, “I’ll come to the point. In 1916 I was at Plattsburg, expecting a commission. The Department of Justice sent for me. I went to Washington where I was made to understand that I had been selected to serve my country in what is vaguely known as the Secret Service—and which includes government agents attached to several departments.
“The great war is over; but I am still retained in the service. Because something more sinister than a hun victory over civilisation threatens this Republic. And threatens the civilised world.”
She had become very white. She said nothing. He looked at her with his quiet, reassuring smile.
“That’s what I want of you,” he repeated.
“I want your help,” he went on, “I want your valuable knowledge of the Orient. I want whatever secret information you possess. I want your rather amazing gifts, your unprecedented experience among almost unknown people, your familiarity with occult things, your astounding powers—whatever they are—hypnotic, psychic, material.
“Because, to-day, civilisation is engaged in a secret battle for existence against gathering powers of violence, the force and limit of which are still unguessed.
“It is a battle between righteousness and evil, between sanity and insanity, light and darkness, God and Satan! And if civilisation does not win, then the world perishes.”
She raised her still eyes to his, but made no other movement.
“Miss Norne,” he said, “we in the International Service know enough about you to desire to know more.
“We already knew the story you have told to me. Agents in the International Secret Service kept in touch with you from the time that the Japanese escorted you out of China.
“From the day you landed, and all across the Continent to New York, you have been kept in view by agents of this government.
“Here, in New York, my men have kept in touch with you. And now, to-night, the moment has come for a personal understanding between you and me.”
The girl’s pale lips moved—became stiffly articulate: “I—I wish to live,” she stammered, “I fear death.”