"I have been a thick-headed idiot!" Wolfenden exclaimed. "There have been heaps of things from which I might have guessed something near the truth, at any rate. What a fool she must have thought me!"
The two men were silent. Outside in the street there was a rush for a special edition, and a half cheer rang in the room. A waiter entered with a handful of copies which were instantly seized upon. Wolfenden secured one and read the headings.
"MOBILIZATION DECLARED. ALL LEAVE CANCELLED. CABINET COUNCIL STILL SITTING."
"Densham, do you realise that we are really in for war?"
"I don't think there can be any doubt about it myself. What a thunderbolt! By the bye, where is your friend, Mr. Sabin?"
"I do not know; I came to London partially to see him. I have an account to settle when we do meet; at present he has disappeared. Densham!"
"If Miss Sabin has become the Princess Helène of Bourbon, who is Mr. Sabin?"
"I am not sure," Densham answered, "I have been looking into the genealogy of the family, and if he is really her uncle, there is only one man whom he can be--the Duke de Souspennier!"
"Souspennier! Wasn't he banished from France for something or other--intriguing for the restoration of the Monarchy, I think it was?"
"Yes, he disappeared at the time of the Commune, and since then he is supposed to have been in Asia somewhere. He has quite a history, I believe, and at different times has been involved in several European complications. I shouldn't be at all surprised if he isn't our man. Mr. Sabin has rather the look of a man who has travelled in the East, and he is certainly an aristocrat."
"Harcutt would be very much interested in this," he declared. "What's up outside?"
There had been a crash in the street, and the sound of a horse plunging; the two men walked to the windows. The _débris_ of a hansom was lying in the road, with one wheel hopelessly smashed, a few yards off. A man, covered with mud, rose slowly up from the wreck. Densham and Wolfenden simultaneously recognised him.
"It is Felix," Wolfenden exclaimed. "Come on!"
They both hurried out into the street. The driver of the hansom, who also was covered with mud, stood talking to Felix while staunching the blood from a wound in his forehead.