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Rh position is not what it was. The suspicions aroused during the War have never died down. I am continually watched and spied upon."

"But no charge of espionage was ever brought against you?"

"Our chief lays his plans too carefully for that."

"Long life to the 'Colonel,'" said the Count, smiling. "Amazing news, is it not, that he means to retire? To retire! Just like a doctor, or a butcher, or a plumber——"

"Or any other business man," finished Nadina. "It should not surprise us. That is what the 'Colonel' has always been—an excellent man of business. He has organized crime as another man might organize a boot factory. Without committing himself, he has planned and directed a series of stupendous coups, embracing every branch of what we might call his 'profession.' Jewel robberies, forgery, espionage (the latter very profitable in war-time), sabotage, discreet assassination, there is hardly anything he has not touched. Wisest of all, he knows when to stop. The game begins to be dangerous?—he retires gracefully—with an enormous fortune!"

"H'm!" said the Count doubtfully. "It is rather—upsetting for all of us. We are at a loose end, as it were."

"But we are being paid off—on a most generous scale!" Something, some undercurrent of mockery in her tone, made the man look at her sharply. She was smiling to herself, and the quality of her smile aroused his curiosity. But he proceeded diplomatically:

"Yes, the 'Colonel' has always been a generous paymaster. I attribute much of his success to that—and to his invariable plan of providing a suitable scapegoat. A great brain, undoubtedly a great brain! And an apostle of the maxim, 'If you want a thing done safely, do not