That night he had abundant opportunity of hearing the Princess Nastirsevitch’s views on the situation, freely expressed.  He himself fetched Celia Lennard to the conference at New Scotland Yard; they found Fullaway and the Princess already there, in full blast of debate.  Allerdyke inspected the new arrival with keen interest and found her a well-preserved, handsome woman of middle-age, sharp, smart, and American to the finger-tips.  The official whom they had met before was already questioning her, and for Allerdyke’s benefit he repeated what had already transpired.

“The Princess affirms, Mr. Allerdyke, that not a soul but herself and your cousin, Mr. James Allerdyke, knew of this affair,” he said.  “I am right, am I not, madame,” he went on, turning to the Princess, “in saying that not one word of this transaction, or proposed transaction, was ever mentioned by you to any person but Mr. James Allerdyke?”

“To no other person than Mr. James Allerdyke,” assented the Princess firmly.  “It would have been strange conduct on my part, I think, if I had told anybody else anything about it!—­my object, of course, being secrecy.  From the moment I first mentioned it to Mr. James Allerdyke until I arrived here just now and met Mr. Fullaway there, I never spoke of the matter to any one!”

The official looked at Allerdyke as if inviting him to ask any question that occurred to him, and Allerdyke immediately brought up that which had been in his mind ever since his discovery of James Allerdyke’s pocket-diary.

“How came you to repose such confidence in my cousin, ma’am?” he asked brusquely.  “I always thought I was pretty deep in his counsels, but I never heard him mention your name.  Did he know you well?”

“I had known Mr. James Allerdyke for a little over a year,” replied the Princess.  “I met him first in Paris—­then on the Riviera—­then in Russia.  The fact is, he did some business for me.  I had every confidence in him—­the fullest confidence.  I knew he was a thoroughly straight man.  And just as I had decided to sell these jewels’—­all my own property, mind—­in order to clear off the whole lot of the mortgages on my son’s estate, so’s he could come into them quite unencumbered, I happened to meet Mr. James Allerdyke in St. Petersburg—­that’s of course, a few weeks ago—­and I immediately took him into my confidence and asked his help.  With the result,” added the Princess, “that he cabled to Mr. Fullaway there and that all this has come about!  I tell you in the most emphatic manner at my command,” she went on, turning to the official, and tapping the edge of his desk as if to accentuate her words, “it’s impossible that anybody over there in Russia could have known of my arrangements with Mr. James Allerdyke—­utterly impossible.  For I never spoke of them to any one there, and I’m sure he would not!”

“Impossible is a big word, Princess,” said the official.  “There may have been ways of leakage.  Did you exchange any correspondence on the matter?”