Of course, they found nothing, search as they might, and presently they flung my clothes back at me and bade me get dressed again, “for you and I, young man,” said Clubfoot, with his glinting smile, “have got to have a little talk together!”

When I was once more clothed—­

“You can leave us, Schmalz!” commanded Clubfoot, “and send up the sergeant when I ring:  he shall look after this tricky Englishman whilst we are at dinner with our charming hostess.”

Schmalz went out and left us alone.  Clubfoot lighted a cigar.  He smoked in silence for a few minutes.  I said nothing, for really there was nothing for me to say.  They hadn’t got their precious document, and it was not likely they would ever recover it now.  I feared greatly that Francis in his loyalty might make an attempt to rescue me, but I hoped, whatever he did, he would think first of putting the document in a place of safety.  I was more or less resigned to my fate.  I was in their hands properly now, and whether they got the document or not, my doom was sealed.

“I will pay you the compliment of saying, my dear Captain Okewood,” Clubfoot remarked in that urbane voice of his which always made my blood run cold, “that never before in my career have I devoted so much thought to any single individual, in the different cases I have handled, as I have to you.  As an individual, you are a paltry thing:  it is rather your remarkable good fortune that interests me as a philosopher of sorts....  I assure you it will cause me serious concern to be the instrument of severing your really extraordinary strain of good luck.  I don’t mind telling you, as man to man, that I have not yet entirely decided in my mind what to do with you now that I’ve got you!”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“You’ve got me, certainly,” I replied, “but you would vastly prefer to have what I have not got.”

“Let us not forget to be always content with small mercies,” answered the other, smiling with a gleam of his golden teeth,... “that is a favourite maxim of mine.  As you truly remark, I would certainly prefer the ... the jewel to the infinitely less precious and ... interesting ... casket.  But what I have, I hold.  And I have you ... and your accomplice as well.”

“I have no accomplice,” I denied stoutly.

“Surely you forget our gracious hostess, our most charming Countess?  Was it not thanks to the interest she deigned to take in your safety that I came here?  Had it not been for that circumstance, I should scarcely have ventured to intrude upon her widowhood....”

“Her widowhood?” I exclaimed.

Clubfoot smiled again.

“You cannot have followed the newspapers in your ... retreat, my dear Captain Okewood,” he replied, “or surely you would have read the afflicting intelligence that Count Rachwitz, A.D.C. to Field-Marshal von Mackensen, was killed by a shell that fell into the Brigade Head-quarters where he was lunching at Predeal.  Ah, yes,” he sighed, “our beautiful Countess is now a widow, alone ...” he paused, then added, “... and unprotected!”