Phineas Duge smiled a little dubiously.  They found their retired corner and ordered luncheon.  Then Littleson leaned across the table.

“Duge,” he said, “I’m thankful that we’ve made it up.  Weiss cabled me that you had come to terms, and that you were on your way over here to deal with the other matter.  It’s cost us a few millions to try and get the blind side of you.”

Phineas Duge smiled very slightly; that is to say, his lips parted, but there was no relaxation of his features.

“Littleson,” he said, “before we commence to talk, have you seen anything of my niece over here?”

Littleson was a little surprised.  He had not imagined that Phineas Duge would ever again remember his niece’s existence.

“Yes,” he answered, “I crossed over with her.”

“And since then?”

“I have seen her once or twice,” Littleson answered a little dubiously.

“Alone?” Phineas Duge asked.

“Not always,” Littleson answered.  “Twice I have seen her with Norris Vine, and twice with a young Englishman who was on the steamer.”

Phineas Duge said nothing for a moment.  He seemed to be studying the menu, but he laid it down a little abruptly.

“Do you happen to know,” he asked, “where she is now?”

“I haven’t an idea,” Littleson answered truthfully.  “To be frank with you, she was not particularly amiable when I spoke to her on the steamer.  She evidently wanted to have very little to say to me, so I thought it best to leave her alone.”

“How long is it,” Phineas Duge asked, “since you saw her?”

“It is about a week ago,” Littleson answered.  “She was dining at Luigi’s with Norris Vine.  I remember that I was rather surprised to see her with him.  He seems to possess some sort of attraction for your family.”  Phineas Duge looked at the speaker coldly, and Littleson felt that somehow, somewhere, he had blundered.  He made a great show of commencing his first course.

“Let me know exactly,” Phineas Duge said, a moment or two later, “what you have done with regard to the man Vine.”

Littleson glanced cautiously around.

“I have seen him,” he said.  “I have argued the matter from every possible side.  I found him, I must say, absolutely impossible.  He will not deal with us upon any terms.  I fear that he is only biding his time.  Every day I see by the papers that the agitation increases, and it seems to me that if this bill passes, we shall all practically be criminals.  I think that Norris Vine is waiting for the moment when he can do so with the greatest dramatic effect, to fill his rotten paper with a verbatim copy of that document.”

“It would be,” Phineas Duge remarked, “uncommonly awkward for you and Weiss and the others.”

“We couldn’t be extradited,” Littleson answered, “and I shall take remarkably good care not to cross the ocean again until this thing has blown over.”