"I'm very sorry, sir," he was saying, "I hope you'll remember as it was your orders to risk an accident, sooner than lose sight of t'other gent. Mine's a good 'oss, but what is he against a pair and a light brougham? and Piccadilly ain't the place for a chase of this sort! It'll cost me three pun ten, sir, to say nothing of the wheel----"
Felix motioned him impatiently to be silent, and thrust a note into his hand.
"If the damage comes to more than that," he said, "ask for me at the Russian Embassy, and I will pay it. Here is my card."
Felix was preparing to enter another cab, but Wolfenden laid his hand upon his shoulder.
"Won't you come into my club here, and have a wash?" he suggested. "I am afraid that you have cut your cheek."
Felix raised his handkerchief to his face, and found it covered with blood.
"Thank you, Lord Wolfenden," he said, "I should be glad to; you seem destined always to play the part of the Good Samaritan to me!"
They both went with him into the lavatory.
"Do you know," he asked Wolfenden, when he had sponged his face, "whom I was following?"
"Not Mr. Sabin himself," Felix answered, "but almost the same thing. It was Foo Cha, his Chinese servant who has just arrived in England. Have you any idea where Mr. Sabin is?"
"I do not know," Wolfenden said, "but I am very anxious to find out. I have an account to settle with him!"
"And I," Felix murmured in a low tone, "have a very much longer one against him. To-night, if I am not too late, there will be a balance struck between us! I have lost Foo Cha, but others, better skilled than I am, are in search of his master. They will succeed, too! They always succeed. What have you against him, Lord Wolfenden?"
Wolfenden hesitated; yet why not tell the man the truth? He had nothing to gain by concealment.
"He forced himself into my father's house in Norfolk and obtained, either by force or craft, some valuable papers. My father was in delicate health, and we fear that the shock will cost him his reason."
"Do you want to know what they were?" Felix said. "I can tell you! Do you want to know what he required them for? I can tell you that too! He has concocted a marvellous scheme, and if he is left to himself for another hour or two, he will succeed. But I have no fear; I have set working a mightier machinery than even he can grapple with!"