"I think exactly as you do," she replied cryptically, "only I have foundation for my belief, while you are--rather, your department, is--well, romancing."
Silence fell. The man was the first to speak.
"I'm to infer, then, that in your opinion Chavigny had nothing whatever to do with the robberies?"
"At least, you hinted that there is something rather big behind the thefts."
She continued to smile and leaned upon the desk, facing him.
"To come to the purpose of this call, Sir Francis. If you will give me four months--and a free rein--you have my word that I will recover every jewel that was stolen on the night of June fourteenth."
It was with difficulty that the Director of Central Intelligence smothered an impulse to smile and suggested soberly:
"Won't you be more explicit? This is--well, from my viewpoint, it seems rather incredible."
"I mean, with the aid of one of your men I will do what your Department could never accomplish. May I have him?"
"The whole of the Secret Service is at your disposal!"--magnanimously.
She gestured impatiently. "Woodenheads, all of them!"
Sir Francis almost gasped. "Even Euan Kerth?" he managed to ask calmly.
"I do not know Euan Kerth, but he is reputed to be the lion of your Department. He would more than likely prove unmanageable. No, Euan Kerth does not qualify."
He chewed his lip. "Really, won't you throw a little more light on the subject?"
"No," she replied in mellifluous tones, with her most distracting smile. "You recall what happened in the affair of Amar Singh, when your men investigated? _I_ shall handle this after my own manner--or wash my hands of it."
Sir Francis' forehead wrinkled in an official frown.
"This is most extraordinary! Is that a--er--threat?"
"Dare one threaten the Intelligence Department?" she purred.
He drummed upon the surface of his desk again. His thoughts at that moment were none too pleasant.
"Well, what are your terms?" came at length from him.
She was aware that she was mistress of the situation, and she enjoyed the position.
"I wish to choose the man with whom I am to work," she began. "I am not to be spied upon by your agents; in fact, the first indication of any sort of surveillance will end our contract. The man I choose will not be permitted to communicate with you, or with anyone, until we have finished. He must obey me implicitly. If you agree to my terms, I shall name a meeting-place, and from the instant this man enters the house he is mine; he disappears from your observation completely until I give him back to the Raj. Meanwhile, you will follow up the clues you have; you will forget me, you will forget the man who is to help me--and at the end of four months I will keep my pledge."