Page:Sax Rohmer - Fire Tongue.djvu/86

70 "That I cannot imagine. I have been wondering ever since Doctor McMurdoch told me."

"You recognize the person to whom Sir Charles referred?"

"Yes. He could only have meant Ormûz Khan."

"Ormûz Khân" echoed Harley. "Where have I heard that name?"

"He visits England periodically, I believe. In fact, he has a house somewhere near London. I met him at Lady Vail's."

"Lady Vail's? His excellency moves, then, in diplomatic circles? Odd that I cannot place him."

"I have a vague idea, Mr. Harley, that he is a financier. I seem to have heard that he had something to do with the Imperial Bank of Iran." She glanced naïvely at Harley. "Is there such a bank?" she asked.

"There is," he replied. "Am I to understand that Ormûz Khân is a Persian?"

"I believe he is a Persian," said Phil Abingdon, rather confusedly. "To be quite frank, I know very little about him."

Paul Harley gazed steadily at the speaker for a moment. "Can you think of any reason why Sir Charles should have worried about this gentleman?" he asked.

The girl lowered her head again. "He paid me a lot of attention," she finally confessed.