Anders' courage had failed him pitifully. Félanie, on the contrary, had recovered herself.
'I have been a fool, perhaps,' she confessed. 'You were just one of the few chances against me. Very well, we go to America on Saturday.'
'But our contract?' Anders faltered. 'The revue? Elaine's success? They have doubled our salaries. London is at her feet.'
'After Saturday,' Lavendale reminded him calmly, 'the best that can happen to you, Anders, is a bandaged forehead and twelve bullets, in the courtyard of the Tower. I will not offend your taste by suggesting----'
Félanie stamped her foot and turned her shoulder contemptuously upon Anders.
'It is finished, Monsieur Lavendale,' she pronounced. 'If there were any bribe in the world I could offer you----'
It was her one rather faint-hearted effort and he laughed at the seduction in her eyes.
'You will be watched from this moment until the steamer leaves Liverpool,' he concluded, leaving the room and closing the door behind him....
In the hall he met Lenwade, waiting for the lift, incoherent still but sober. Lavendale drew him out into the courtyard, where Suzanne was still seated in the car.
'Lenwade,' he announced, 'I have your plans. They are safe with me. I shall keep them until to-morrow morning. You can come to me at 17 Sackville Street at ten o'clock. Until then they will be safe.'
'Thank God!' the other murmured. 'How did you manage it?'
Lavendale shook him off a little contemptuously and took his place by Suzanne's side.
'They leave on Saturday for Liverpool,' he told her. 'I hand the care of them, from now until then, over to your branch.'
She pressed his hand and drew a little closer to him.
Lavendale was closeted with a Personage, and the interview to which he found himself committed came as something of a shock to him. The Personage was not in the habit of wasting his words, and he spoke succinctly and to the point.
'To sum up, Mr. Lavendale,' he concluded, 'we have received direct and categorical complaints concerning you, forwarded to us through the German Ambassador in Washington. It is stated that whilst enjoying the shelter and privileges of your association with the Embassy here, you have rendered direct aid to a Branch of the French Secret Service in this country, and that you were yourself responsible for the interception of an important communication from Berlin.'