“I shall be glad when this business is over,” said Rene, with a sigh of satisfaction.  “I am a banker by profession.  For me the ebb and flow of trade, with its certainties and its discretions.  But what would you?  Trade must be prepared for; doors that will not open must be forced; those who stand in the way must be thrust aside.  This Feisul is an impossible fellow.  He is a hypocrite, I tell you—­one of those praters about righteousness who won’t understand that the church and the mosque are the places for that sort of thing.  Eh?  You follow me?  But tell me, what has been done to Daulch, Hattin and Aubek?  Were they backed against a wall and shot?  Who betrayed them?  Too bad that such a plan should fail, for it was perfect.”

“Far from perfect,” I answered; for that one piece of strategy I have by heart—­the way to make a man tell all he knows is to pretend to superior knowledge.

“Heh?  How could you improve on it?  Three members of the staff to order sauve-qui-peut unexpectedly, seize Feisul, and deliver him dead or alive?  What is better than that?  But what has been done to the three?”

“Nothing,” I answered.

“Just like him! just like him!  I tell you, that man Feisul would rather be a martyr than succeed at his proper business.”  We reached the palace just as Feisul was leaving it.  Several members of his staff were hard on his heels in the porch and our party was behind them again, with Mabel last of all.  There was a line of waiting autos nearly long enough to fill the drive, but an utter absence of military fuss, and no shouting or hurry.  It looked in the dark more like a funeral than the departure of a king to join his army at the front.

I remained in the car with the banker and sent Jeremy to report our doings to Grim.  Presently I could see him standing under the porch lamp with a hand on Grim’s shoulder, and I leaned out over the auto door to watch; but Rene the banker leaned back, snuggled up in his overcoat, liking neither to be seen nor to get his skin wet.  I expected to see the three staff officers Daulch, Hattin and Aubek arrested there and then; but nothing happened, except that Feisul suddenly drove away with Mabel and Grim in the same car with him.

There followed a rush for the other cars, and the whole line started forward, Jeremy jumping in as our car passed the porch.  “Daulch, Hattin and Aubek are at the front,” he said, and began humming to himself.

“At the front?” demanded Rene, sitting upright suddenly.  “At the front, you say?  When did they leave for the front?”

“This evening,” answered Jeremy.

You couldn’t see his face in the dark, but I think he was chuckling.

“Strange!” said the banker.  “Yet you say they have been betrayed—­their plan is known—­yet they left for the front this evening?”

It was pitch-dark inside the car, for the rain swished down in torrents and Jeremy fastened the flaps after he got in.  Rene’s change of expression was a thing that you could feel, not see.  He kept perfect silence for about two minutes, while the car skidded and bumped at the rear of the procession.  Then: