“The care of Ruth Lalonde is upon my shoulders,” he insisted.  “There can be no question about that.  From me it is not charity, for she shared her meals with me when I was practically starving.  I am going to ask you more questions.”

“Proceed, by all means,” Sabatini invited.

“Was Starling concerned at all in this Rosario affair?”

“Not directly,” Sabatini admitted.

“Then why,” Arnold demanded, “does he hide and behave like a frightened child?”

“A pertinent question,” Sabatini agreed.  “You have to take into account the man’s constitutional cowardice.  It is a fact, however, that he was perfectly well aware of what was going to happen, and there are circumstances connected with the affair—­a document, for instance, that we know to be in the hands of the police—­which account for their suspicions and would certainly tend to implicate our friend Starling.  It would be quite easy to make out a very strong case against him.”

“I do not understand,” Arnold said, after a moment’s silence, “what interest Lalonde could have had in killing Rosario.”

Sabatini contemplated for a few moments the tip of his patent shoe.  Then he sighed gently and lit a cigarette.

“For a young man,” he remarked, “it is certain that you have a great deal of curiosity.  Still, you have also, I believe, discretion.  Listen, then.  There is a certain country in the south of Europe which all those who are behind the scenes know to be on the brink of a revolution.  The capital is already filled with newspaper correspondents, the thunder mutters day by day.  The army is unpaid and full of discontent.  For that reason, it is believed that their spirit is entirely revolutionary.  Every morning we who know expect to read in the papers that the royal palace has been stormed and the king become an exile.  This was the state of things until about a week ago.  Did you read the papers on Thursday morning last?”

Arnold shook his head.

“Perhaps,” he replied.  “I saw nothing that I can remember.”

“That morning,” Sabatini continued, “the morning of Rosario’s death, one read that the government of that country, which had vainly applied for a loan to all the bankers of Europe with a view to satisfying the claims of the army and navy, had at last succeeded in arranging one through the intervention of Rosario.  The paragraph was probably inspired, but it spoke plainly, going so far, even, as to say that the loan had probably averted a revolution.  The man who had saved the monarchy of an ancient nation was Rosario.  One of his rewards, I think, was to have been a title and a distinguished order; it was understood among us that this was the real bait.  Rosario’s actual reward you know of.”

“But where does Isaac Lalonde come in?” demanded Arnold.

“Isaac Lalonde is the London secretary of the revolutionary party of the country of which I have been speaking.  I think,” he concluded, “that your intelligence will make the rest clear.”